Exchanging a Dream For Reality
by MrsHellman
Summary: Akatsuki's about to extract Kyūbi, but things do not go as originally planned. Daddy!Minato Young!Naruto [AR]
1. I won't let you

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto; this concerns the entire story, so I'll only post a disclaimer in the first chapter.

**Note:** My first story here and I can assure you, it's not perfect, but I think it's original. I've never really stumbled upon an idea like this before, and I'd appreciate it if you told me about your own estimations. I like Minato/Naruto stories quite a bit and I hope you'll enjoy reading this. If there's something that bothers you, please, do tell me.

**Warnings: **coarse language, suicidal thoughts, OCs, character deaths, mixed English, usage of Japanese, blood and violence.

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**Chapter One: I Won't Let You**_  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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Uzumaki Naruto, a fifteen-year-old boy with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes sat and ate ramen at his favourite place Ichiraku's. He had just come back from a mission that had been really breathtaking and he was still recovering from it, because the mission's main priority was to take down the Akatsuki members Kakazu and Hidan. Shikamaru had finished Hidan off while Kakashi and Naruto had taken on Kakazu.

Naruto ate in silence and Teuchi looked at him with wondering eyes.

"You're really quiet today Naruto", he said while polishing a glass.

"Oh, sorry old man! I'm just so deep down in my own thoughts, that's all," Naruto said with a wide smile looking at Teuchi.

"Ah . . . I thought that you were sick; it's not like you to be so quiet and peaceful. But it doesn't matter anymore! If you say that you're fine then I believe you. But tell me . . . How went the mission? This is the first time you've been here since you came back to Konoha. I heard that it was something about Akatsuki," Teuchi said and Naruto's smile widened.

"Yeah, that's right! The Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakazu were there, but none of them could pass through us! Shikamaru took out Hidan while I and Kakashi-sensei took Kakazu. But Kakashi-sensei couldn't have done a single thing against them if it wasn't for me and my new jutsu! He couldn't move after that hit! All his cells were demolished!" Naruto answered acting like his old self again.

"I guess that your new jutsu is the reason for why your arm looks like it does," Teuchi said, pointing at Naruto's bandaged arm. The arm was a lot better now than a couple of weeks ago. It had been in a plaster, but thanks to Kyūbi's healing powers, Naruto's arm healed very fast and well.

"Oi, Naruto," said a familiar voice from behind Naruto. Naruto turned around with a surprised look on his face.

"Ah, Shikamaru! What's up? Does baa-chan want to see me again?" he asked with a grin.

"Yeah . . . and you better hurry," Shikamaru said.

"Why am I not surprised . . .?" Naruto said under his breath, while quickly finishing up the last of the ramen before he left. "See you later old man!" The blonde walked away towards the Hokage's office and when he arrived outside Tsunade's door he knocked three times. He heard a 'come in' from inside the office and entered the room, with a huge grin.

"Oi, baa-chan!" Naurto greeted her and closed the door behind him.

"Don't call me that you brat!" she shouted, but he just smiled.

"Why did you call me?" Naruto asked while changing his toothy grin to a serious expression.

"I've gathered some information from other countries and it's very important that you be aware of its contents," she explained looking at him with business eyes.

"Huh? Nani?" he asked.

"Orochimaru's dead and his killer is no one else than a certain Uchiha Sasuke," she said and Naruto's eyes widened in shock and happiness.

"Nani . . . ? But how . . .?"

"It's the truth Naruto," said another voice and Naruto turned around.

"Ero-sennin?" he said surprised and looked at Jiraiya who had entered the room.

"Don't call me that! It's _Jiraiya-sama or Jiraiya_, got that!" He roared, annoyed. "But we have more important things to discuss . . ."

"Oh, yeah that's right!" Naruto said. "But, Sasuke! If he killed Orochimaru doesn't it mean that he'll be coming back to Konoha?" Neither Tsunade nor Jiraiya answered him. "Right . . .?" Naruto tried again. His face became a confused expression and his eyes became dull with sadness.

"He's not coming back, then? But what's he going to do? He wouldn't kill Orochimaru without a reason," Naruto said straightening up a bit.

"It seems that he has created an organisation of his own. They are calling themselves 'Hebi' which contains four members including himself," Jiraiya explained as Naruto's eyes became smaller which made him look a lot older than he truly was. No one said a word in a long time.

"Do we know why he created this group . . . 'Hebi'?" Naruto finally asked.

"We're not completely sure about the matter only that Sasuke had revenge on his mind. He wants to see Itachi dead, which was the main reason for why he left the village nearly three years ago," Jiraiya sighed.

"That only means that we have to get to him before Sasuke does," Naruto said, his bangs covering his blue eyes.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked.

"If we can get to Itachi before Sasuke does, then we have the advantage. The only reason Sasuke continues to live is so he can find and kill Itachi, right? Itachi let Sasuke live so someone from the Uchiha clan could come after him for revenge. Sasuke's a real bastard! Doing what Itachi wants him to do!" Naruto shouted angrily. "But like I said, if we can get to Itachi before he does . . . maybe Sasuke could keep his mind on something else . . . "

"Naruto . . ." Tsunade said quietly.

"Sometimes you really do know how to use that thing between your shoulders," teased Jiraiya.

Naruto glared at him in response. "If we find Itachi we can either take him to Konoha or we kill him. But there's a catch in both of those opportunities. If we take him to Konoha . . . there is always a chance that he'll escape and devastation will break lose, and if we kill him, Sasuke will go berserk and kill Itachi's killer," Naruto continued while Tsunade stared at him with wondering eyes.

"_He's using his brain, but will it work?" _Tsunade thought as she looked at Jiraiya with a questioning glance.

"You haven't taught him about intelligence, huh?" she said with a grin towards Jiraiya.

"Hey, show me some respect, will you!" warned Jiraiya. Naruto smiled his normal 'foxy grin' at that statement.

"But what shall we do?" Naruto asked, looking at Tsunade. "We have to act, we can't just sit here and do nothing, right!"

"Well . . . you're right Naruto, but we have no idea where Itachi is _and _we don't have enough shinobi in Konoha for such a mission. They are all out on other missions, so my answer is no, Naruto," she said when she saw Naruto's face. "And you can't do this mission on your own!"

"Why not! I know that I'm just a Genin, but I can do a hell of a lot more than the other Genin!" he roared at Tsunade.

"Akatsuki's after you, baka! They want to get to Kyūbi! You're a Jinchūriki , remember! You're exactly like Sasuke! Do you want your enemies to do what they want with you?" She screamed at him with pure fury in her eyes.

"But I . . ." Naruto tried.

"No!" Tsunade screamed so loud that the windows shook. Naruto had never seen Tsunade so angry; it momentarily silenced him.

"I know that they want Kyūbi, but just because I'm a Jinchūriki doesn't mean I can't act on my own," he said quietly, but Tsunade and Jiraya heard the anger in his voice.

"Normally I can't be outside Konoha's walls, but I'm not respecting that. I'm going in and out like any normal person! So why? Why do you think you can stop me from haunting down Itachi when you can't keep me inside Konoha!" Naruto roared, his voice becoming higher and higher with each word.

"I'm not an irresponsible kid anymore! Yes, I can act before I think sometimes but it doesn't mean that I'm a stupid idiot! I can do things like any other shinobi!" Jiraiya looked at Naruto and then Tsunade, who looked like she was going to cry. Wait . . . Jiraiya's eyes widened. Cry? Tsunade?

"Naruto . . ." He said. "You have gone too far."

"Nani?" Naruto answered with another glare.

"I know what you're capable of but to play into Akatsuki's hands is not an option. Do you want to die? Do you want to give up everything you have fought for?" Jiraiya asked with a hard edge in his voice.

"If you keep hunting after Akatsuki all the time you'll die in a short period of time. Can't you understand that? That's why Tsunade won't let you go. If we wanted to see you dead we wouldn't be able to call ourselves Sannin," he finished.

"I can defend myself," Naruto said in a faint voice.

"I know, but each time you went out on a mission Akatsuki or Orochimaru were involved in you came back injured. Maybe not every single time but you've acted recklessly," Tsunade said, hiding her face in her hands.

"I am not the only one Akatsuki's after!" Naruto protested.

"Don't you think that we know that?" Tsunade screamed and stood up. "If you want to you can use the powers of Kyūbi, but each time you do that Kyūbi comes closer to its freedom and your death!" She now stood in front of Naruto and held him by his collar. She looked him straight in the eyes and he stared back at her with cold eyes. The warm crystal blue eyes were like piercing ice sticks.

"I know," he said calmly, without breaking the eye contact. "But do you know how this is for me? I want to fight Akatsuki _and_ get Sasuke back." Now it was Tsunade's turn to stare with cold eyes.

"For my entire life I have been _hated _because of Kyūbi that Yondaime sealed inside me. The last three years, if not more, Akatsuki has been after me. Earlier in my life I had a best friend. So why do you think I'm going to let you stop me from doing this?" asked Naruto without blinking.

"Stop Naruto," Tsunade said "I know very well how your life has been and how it is now, but if you'll keep going on like this I will have to take your hitai-ate from you."

Naruto didn't move a muscle. _My hitai-ate? She can't be serious? If she wants my hitai-ate . . . it's the same thing as . . . never being a ninja anymore. Without the title of shinobi. I won't go back to that life . . . I wouldn't be able to take that . . . I would probably be alone again, without friends. All alone . . . all my friends will be out on missions while I'm stuck in Konoha . . . but . . . _Naruto's thoughts were spinning like crazy in his head.

The blonde stared at her and blinked for the first time and Tsunade broke eye contact, but her grip on his collar tightened.

"One more word about this, and _I will _take your title from you," she said tightening the grip even more, so Naruto had to stand on his tiptoes.

"Do you hear me!" She roared as she threw Naruto against the wall so hard that a huge crack appeared. Jiraiya looked with shocked and worried eyes towards Naruto who sat with his head down on the floor. His bangs were covering his eyes.

"Naruto!" Tsunade roared again and Naruto looked up at her with his face devoid of emotion.

"Gomen, Tsunade-sama," he said as he stood up and Tsunade looked shocked. An utterly silent Naruto went out of the door and closed it behind him.

_Klonk_

Tsunade and Jiraiya stared at the door with concern and shock.

"Naruto . . ." said Tsunade and hurried towards the door and opened it with a jerk. On the floor in front of her lay Naruto's hitai-ate. The black material with the symbol of Konoha on it, the symbol that told everyone who saw it, that_ that_ person was a Konoha shinobi.

"He . . ." Jiraiya began and looked at Naruto's hitai-ate with shock.

"He actually did it. I can't believe this," he said, walking over to Tsunade who stared at the hitai-ate on the floor.

"Tsunade . . .?" asked Jiraiya looking at her with worry.

"No . . ." Tsunade said and sank to her knees. "No, I didn't mean . . . it was an empty threat! Without him . . . we . . ." She couldn't finish her sentence. She picked up his hitai-ate with concern in her eyes.

_I'm sure he knew that it was an empty threat, but still he went this far, _Jiraiya thought looking down once again at Tsunade.

"We have to find him," She said at last. "He's right when he says that he's just a Genin, but he got potential and power like a Jounin."

"I agree," Jiraiya answered. "But just in one or two ways . . ." He said to himself smiling.

"Bring me everyone from Konoha 11 and their sensei," Tsunade roared. "They are the ones that know where he could be." For the first time ever, Jiraiya did what he was told and went looking for all of Naruto's friends. Forty minutes later, they all were in Tsunade's office with confused looks on their faces. Jiraiya had just told them to go to Tsunade but not the reason why. Team Gai; Neji Hyūga and Rock Lee, team Asuma; Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi, team Kurenai; Shino Aburame and team Kakashi with Sakura Haruno, the others weren't in the village.

"Why are we here? And why isn't Naruto here? I know that he isn't out on a mission," Sakura said noticing that Naruto wasn't there.

"The reason you all are here is because of Naruto. He isn't a shinobi anymore," Tsunade answered. All of them looked at her with shock.

"Nani!" screamed Lee, Sakura, Gai and Kakashi.

"You heard her. Naruto's not a shinobi anymore, but we have to find him because he just left and his hitai-ate's still here," explained Jiraiya.

"But why did he quit?" asked Kakashi with a surprised eye. _What happened to you Naruto? _He thought worriedly.

"It was an empty threat," said Tsunade and everyone looked at her. "I said that if he even mentioned the idea of taking a mission higher than an S-class I would take his hitai-ate from him."

"But why did you take his hitai-ate then?" asked Lee pointing at Naruto's hitai-ate on her desk. "If it was an empty threat . . ."

"I went too far," Tsunade said, pointing behind them. They turned around and saw the massive cracks on the wall.

"Na . . . ni . . .?" Gai exclaimed, looking back at Tsunade. "You threw him . . .?"

"I know that it wasn't good, but the way he behaved, it wasn't the Naruto I know. After I had thrown him he went straight out from the office and said '_gomen, Tsunade-sama.' _But before he left the building he left his hitai-ate in front of the door," she explained.

"He said, 'Tsunade-sama?'" asked Neji and frowned. "That's not like him."

"I know, but it seems like this isn't the only event that's causing him troubled thoughts," Tsunade said scratching her forehead. "Did any of you notice anything strange with him during your last mission, when Hidan and Kakazu were involved?" They all shook their heads except Kakashi, who seemed deep in thought.

"Kakashi . . .?"Asked Tsunade, looking at him. The others did as well.

"During our time at the training grounds, while Naruto was practicing his new jutsu, I noticed something. More than once his eye colour changed to a more lustrous blue. It was the same blue, maybe a bit lighter, but it kind of . . . I don't know . . . they were glowing. I have no idea what happened, but I could barely notice it with my Sharingan," Kakashi explained. Tsunade looked at him with concern in her eyes.

"What happened when his eyes changed?" asked Gai. Kakashi went deep in thought again, remembering the incident.

"His chakra changed a bit in strength, that's all," he answered with a sigh.

"Hold on . . . during Naruto's training with me, when he learnt how to summon Gamabunta, he told me about the colour of different chakra types; which colour chakra he thought he had. He said that his normal chakra is blue **(1)**," Jiraiya said, giving Tsunade, Gai and Kakashi a significant gaze. Sakura understood as well. Normal chakra is blue while Kyūbi's chakra is red.

"Do you think Naruto's chakra colour changed?" Kiba asked dumbly, confused.

"Remember when we went to Hoshi (Hoshigakure no Sato – Hidden Star Village)?"Neji suddenly asked. The ones that had been on that mission nodded. "The chakra those people had from the fallen star were purple. And I have also seen Naruto using an inhuman chakra which was red," he continued. Sakura's eye twitched.

_I won't tell them, Naruto. Not today, because you're the one who's supposed to tell them, _thought Tsunade.

"So we're wondering if Naruto's colour of chakra changed?" Lee asked Neji and then looked at Tsunade.

"Exactly!" said Tsunade who then looked at Kakashi.

"Seriously, I don't know, but . . . wait . . . maybe it did," Kakashi said, while all of them looked at him curiously. "If it should have been a colour . . . no. I don't know."

"Very well . . . we have to find him, right? And when you do, try to persuade him to come back; force him if necessary, but do not hurt him. Got it?" Tsunade asked, looking at Konoha 11.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" They said and left. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Kakashi stayed behind.

"Why are you still here Kakashi? Shouldn't you go look for Naruto?" asked Jiraiya, looking at him with curious eyes.

"Naruto's chakra was yellow," Kakashi stated suddenly.

"Yellow?" asked Jiraya with widened eyes. "And you're sure?"

"Well . . . yes," answered Kakashi, shrugging his shoulders however, he had a very serious face under his mask, which was perfectly clear.

"A yellow chakra . . . but . . . the Yondaime was the only one who could produce a yellow chakra, and he did that when he used his Hiraishin no jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique). That's why he was called Konoha no Kiiroi Senku(Konoha's Yellow Flash)," said Jiraiya, looking with suspicious eyes at Kakashi who seemed indifferent about the glare he received.

"But Minato is Naruto's father – it wouldn't surprise me if there was something genetic about that jutsu. To reach such a high speed by only using ninjutsu should be impossible. Actually . . . to move that fast . . . well . . . Minato made the impossible possible so it wouldn't be impossible if Naruto could use that chakra too," said Tsunade. She sighed deeply while closing her eyes. "Like father like son, right?"

"It can't be genetic," Jiraiya said, looking out of the window towards the Hokage monument.

"Yes, I doubt that too . . . but there is something that's happening to Naruto," Kakashi said, and Tsunade nodded in agreement.

"We really have to find him," Jiraiya said. "But when we finally do that we have to talk to him about this yellow chakra. Because I think that this is something that he is not completely unaware of, but I'm not quite sure."

"Don't you think that he'll be suspicious about something? He may believe that we think he's sick or something. I have noticed that he's smarter than he seems to be," Kakashi put in, while sighing and looking down at the floor.

"Well, we just have to wait and see. He may be unconscious when I'm done with him," Tsunade said, making both Kakashi and Jiraiya sweat drop.

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**(1)** In the anime the normal chakra is blue and in the manga it is yellow, I know, but I had to use the colour blue since this yellow chakra is important, sorry if I'm confusing you guys.


	2. Philosophy

**Chapter Two: Philosophy**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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Naruto sat at on top of the Yondaime's head watching the village. Yondaime had always been . . . not his idol, but . . . a person he looked up to. He didn't know too much about the previous Hokages, but one thing that he was sure of, was this: The Yondaime was the person who sealed Kyūbi inside him. He was the person who made his young years a living hell.

It was the only thing Naruto could think about. Each day he wondered, thought and blamed. Why him? Why did the Fourth seal Kyūbi inside him? He knew he was an orphan since birth, but to do something like that to him, having no choice in the matter! It's inhumane! Why couldn't he seal the damn fox inside himself before he died?

"_**Because he knew something no one else knew . . ." **_a voice in back of his head told him.

_I want to know the reason since I'm involved in this mess. Why I got Kyūbi and why the Yondaime gave his life for something like that . . ._ Natuto thought and sighed.

" _**. . .to save Konoha, and also to . . ." **_Naruto didn't hear what the voice wanted to say because he didn't want to hear it.

Sometimes, Naruto asks himself a lot of questions about his life and his future. But he can't find the answers. He isn't even sure if there are answers within his reach . . . are they beyond his reach?

**Is there a reality outside my mind? **_Is Kyūbi the only living thing around me or not . . .?_

**What is knowledge? **_I think I know a lot about the people around me, about Kyūbi, about the Yondaime, about Akatsuki, about Sasuke and about myself, but do I really know so much?_

**What is truth? **_Have I've been lied to in my life? I proberly have, but when has the lies come to life then?_

**What makes an action valuable? **_Does it make a different if I live or not . . .?_

"Why does everything have to be so hard? There's always an answer, even to the most difficult questions, but where are the answers for these questions?" Naruto asked out loud. He didn't even know the answer for that question.

Sighing deeply, Naruto laid down on his back, looking at the sky, which turned darker and darker by the minute. Had he already been out for so long? He must have been at the monument for hours.

Naruto closed his eyes and continued in his thoughts. To wonder and think about things was something he never did when other people were around, but when he was alone he could be himself. He loved to think about everything, but he also hated it, because it was often related to his life.

Naruto's friends thought that he was a clumsy idiot, but it was just an act he used every single day. It was an act that protected his real self and feelings. It was and still is a mask that covers his sad life and thoughts. He'd rather be sad for the rest of his life if that would bring the people around him happiness.

Naruto's eyes had been closed for a while when he heard something behind him. He didn't open them but he focused his senses.

_Is there someone here looking for me? _He thought. _Or is it just my imagination . . .? No more questions! My brain can't handle this anymore! One day I'm going to drown in all these questions._

Naruto could hear a footstep . . . and then another . . . someone or something was moving towards him. Naruto opened his eyes and sat up. Or . . . he tried to sit up but he couldn't. His body was paralyzed! He couldn't move a muscle.

_What the bloody hell is going on here_? Naruto thought and moved his eyes to get a better look at the person or thing, coming closer to him. 'It' should be standing very close to him by now.

_Na . . . ni? _Was his last thought before everything drowned in darkness.

"Tsunade-sama!" yelled team Gai's leader Gai when they came into Tsunade's office.

"Yes, what is it? Have you found Naruto yet?" she asked, as she looked up from her paperwork.

"We are sorry, but we have not Hokage-sama. We have searched through the entire village, but nothing," said Neji , deactivating his Byakugun.

"Nani? You haven't found him?" asked Tsunade in shock and stared at him with worried eyes. "You've got to be kidding me. Naruto can't hide his chakra that well, so there shouldn't be problems in finding him. Besides, Neji has Byakugun which can see and trace chakra of any kind . . ."

"We don't know if Naruto has hidden his chakra on his own Tsunade-sama, but he has left the village," said Sakura, who had just entered the room with Kakashi. "We have searched everywhere, but we just couldn't find him until it was too late."

"Impossible . . ." said Tsunade. "Naruto can't hide his and Kyūbi's chakra on his own, and if he left the village . . . I'm sure he did it against his will."

"Tsunade-sama," said Kakashi while he breathed in. "Sakura and I were at the Hokage monument and I could sense Naruto's chakra there. It wasn't much but he had been there only a couple of minutes before Sakura and I arrived. I couldn't sense any kind of trace, I'm sorry."

"Then he can't be that far away. I want every one of you in this room and the remaining members of Konoha 11 to search after him, but there's one that really pisses me off . . . Why the bloody hell didn't you try to search the area for him when you were there!?" Tsunade roared at Kakashi and Sakura who both felt Goosebumps along their spines.

"Tsunade-sama . . ." interrupted Sakura. Tsunade looked at her with anger. "The only thing that was left at the place was Naruto's chakra and footprints. And it seemed like the person who did this was an expert at it. The main reason why we didn't follow was because . . ."

"Wait, so Naruto's been kidnapped?" Tsunade interrupted and looked at Sakura and Kakashi with mixed emotions in her eyes . . . anger . . . worry . . . sadness . . .

"I'm not sure, but what worried us the most was the chakra, Tsunade-sama," continued Sakura who seemed a bit pissed about being interrupted, but this was the Godaime speaking to her.

"Nani . . .?" began Gai.

"As she was going to say . . ." Kakashi interrupted. "We found an origami rose at the place along with an intruders chakra."

Tsunade's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"No . . . they can't get in to the village. How did she come in?" asked Tsunade in a calm voice, but inside her fury was rising. Team Gai looked at her with both fear and confusion.

"What's going here?" asked Lee, biting his lip.

"Jiraiya!" roared Tsunade and in no time at all, the frog Sannin jumped in through the open window.

"Do you really have to scream like that? I'm not deaf you know," he said. "Very well . . . have you found Naruto yet?"

"No, because it's not so easy to find a kidnapped person," Tsuande answered in a serious tone. "And guess what the kidnapper left behind?"

"Kidnapped!?" screamed Jiraiya. "What do you mean kidnapped? How the bloody hell could someone kidnap him!? It's impossible to succeed!"

"An origami rose . . ." said Sakura calmly andJiraiya went pale and couldn't believe what he had heard.

"Origami rose?" he asked in a serious tone that didn't suit him that well. Kakashi held an origami rose in his open hand which Jiraiya recognized at once.

"No . . . Akatsuki can't have got to Naruto," he said, as anger began to rise inside him.

"Okay Jiraiya, calm down," Kakashi said, trying to calm the Sannin unsuccessfully.

"How in the world did Konan come into the city?" Jiraiya suddenly asked and turned to Tsunade. She could now see the worry over Naruto in his eyes.

"We don't know, but she's a master in origami and can easy turn herself into paper and infiltrate a city of any kind," explained Tsunade.

Neji, Lee and Tenten listened with curious ears.

"How come a Akatsuki member came in to Konoha . . .?" asked Lee. "She's a master in origami you said . . ." He mumbled to himself and sighed.

"It sure doesn't sound too well," Lee said, as he crossed his arms while closeing his eyes. "She came in to the city . . . and we just have to hope she haven't left it yet."

"I agree," said Neji. "But how was she able to take Naruto? No one has ever succeeded before, at least not without a fight."

"We don't know Neji, but have you ever heard about Konan?" asked Jiraiya looking at him.

"Well, I know that she is the only female member in Akatsuki, more than that, I do not know," he answered.

"She's one of the founders of Akatsuki and she has natural gifts in origami. She can use her origami in all her fights together with jutsus. Like weapons, spys, shields and camouflage," said Jiraiya with his voice hard. "She can even create wings out of paper that lets her fly, the only thing that can stop her is water or some other liquid. If her paper is wet she can't use them or her origami."

"We have to go get Naruto back. I'll send all the ANBUs in Konoha after her and Naruto. They have to find something," said Tsunade and stood up.

"Tell all your friends about the current situation and what we're going to do about this, and after that, do what you want until I call on you," she finished.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," they said and left the room.

_Where the bloody hell are you Naruto?_ Tsunade thought, after everyone left.

_Where am I__ . . .__?_ Thought Naruto as he tried to open his eyes, but that didn't go so well. _That lady must have done something __to__ me._

He listened carefully to see if someone was there with him. He could hear deep breaths, and that someone was looking down at him from above.

"Uzumaki . . . Naruto . . ." whispered the voice in his ear which made him feel a shiver down his spine.

_Who is she? She got to be with the Akatsuki since she wore a black cloak with red clouds on it. I'm in big trouble here, _ Naruto thought and tried to control his breathing.

"You'll soon be able to open your eyes . . ." she said with an evil tone in her voice and then Naruto felt a cold hand over his closed eyes.

At first, nothing happened, but then it seemed as if everything had stopped. Time, movements, breathing . . . All that existed was darkness, and it felt like an eternity for Naruto.

The woman removed her hand and Naruto found he could open his eyes. He saw they were in a dark cave, which Naruto recognized. It wasn't the same cave Gaara had been extracted in, but there was something familiar about it. Then it hit him. They were going to extract Kyūbi.

_No, they're . . ._ thought Naruto and felt all the colour in his face drained away and the blue haired woman beside him smiled.

"Are you prepared to meet your destiny . . .?" she asked and stood up "I hope so . . . because this time there's no escape from this."

_Kuso . . . I have to get out of here__ or__ I'm dead!" _Screamed Naruto, inside his head. _Come on! Think! My body's paralyzed, I can only see not talk and it seems like this lady is very, very powerful and to make things __worse__ . . . I have no idea where I am!_

"_Okay, relax . . . there is always a way to get out of troubles. But . . . Is there a reality outside my mind I could be trapped in a genjutsu to confuse me, but at the same time, this could really be reality. What would Shikamaru do? He can always think clear in situations with a lot of pressure . . . _Natuto thought fratically.

Naruto relaxed and studied his surroundings. It couldn't be a genjutsu, because even if he was trapped in a genjutsu he had to have eye contact with the person. The only person who can use a genjutsu without eye contact is Uchiha Itachi.

But . . . Kabuto put a genjutsu over entire Konoha when Sound attacked Konoha during the Chuunin exam.

_You can't put a genjutsu on a sleeping person so this is reality, but still . . . what about Kabuto then? And Itachi's a member of Akatsuki. _Naruto began to panic and his breath got heavier.

_What I think are thoughts while what's happening in front of me is the reality, its just logic. The truth is what you see, if it's not a genjutsu . . . But a genjutsu is an illusion another person has created to get the advantage over someone. _Naruto closed his eyes for a brief moment.

The questions Natuoy had asked himself was spinning in his head, and he was tryong to come up with an answer for them. _Knowledge is easy to carry but hard to gather . . . man, now I'm like Shikamaru, but that's good . . . everyone can gather knowledge out of feelings, experiences and other people. What you have gone through once you can go through again even though you want it or not . . . but you can make better work out of the second time, 'cause you got knowledge about the situation __from__ before . . ._

Naruto closed his eyes again and thought about his life's past experiences. The night he found out about Kyūbi, and the truth about himself.

What had he felt back then . . .? He gathered knowledge, yes, but through pain and suffering . . . he found out the truth . . . damn it!

_To point out the facts are the same thing as see the truth and to get access to knowledge far beyond your reach. Then you have to take good care of what you have been assigned_, he thought and opened his eyes.

Someone had said something. The people inside the cage either looked at him or at something Naruto couldn't see from his spot on the floor.

_It seems like they're waiting for someone, _he thought_. If I come up with something before those people arrive, maybe I can escape, 'cause now I got my chance. I got knowledge and now I have to use it. I've struggled through situations like this before and from those I've gathered the knowledge I now have, and . . . I've seen the truth. _

Naruto rolled his eyes at his own thoughts. He bet Kyūbi had something to do with his way of thinking for the moment.

_If I'm trying to move, I'm doing it because I have to do something. It's an action and there is a reason behind it. It's the thought behind an action what makes it valuable . . . oh my God . . . normally I don't think this much when I'm put in these kind of situations, but, very well then . . . _Naruto thought, sighing deeply_._

The lady, who had brought Naruto to the cave, looked at him while he thought about his questions. He could read her facial expression, it was cold and hard like stone. But somehow there was warmth deep in there. She must have had a reason for this action, but maybe not a reason other people would consider valuable. To gain powers . . .? To be feared or respected . . .?

_She wants Kyūbi . . . naze . . .? All my answers lead to new questions and behind them there's even more answers beyond my reach. My brain is getting on my nerves, and like I said before, it's going to kill me a beautiful day_ . . . thought Naruto and he looked at the other people in the cave, seeing that all of them were Akatsuki members.

"It seems like you're thinking a lot over something . . . am I right?" said the lady, while the other ones in the cave turned their attention towards her and Naruto.

Naruto couldn't answer because of the stupid jutsu or whatever she did to him.

"Sometimes I wonder what it is like to be a Bijuu . . . to have access to such great powers. The power to destroy and create . . . it really is something . . ." she said in a quiet tone and it seemed like she was talking more to herself, than to Naruto who looked with an emotionless face at her.

The woman bent down and put a hand at Naruto's throat.

"Kai (Release)," she said, while lifting two fingers on the other hand. She removed her hand and Naruto breathed in a deep breath with relief.

"What were you thinking about . . .?" she asked him, while looking down at him without blinking once.

"The meaning with life," Naruto answered with an emotionless voice that matched his face perfectly. He just stared at her and then at the cave's sealing with empty eyes. "Why everything is like it is . . ."

"Really . . .?" the woman asked in an uninterested tone. "I thought you were thinking about how to get out of here. You seem to be such a hyperactive kid . . . in normal cases. But this isn't different, is it . . .?"

"People can change either for the better or worse," Naruto said in a voice he could hardly recognize.

"Yes indeed . . . they can," the woman answered, as she looked him in the eyes. "And so will you after this . . . Uzumaki Naruto . . ." she laughed, "After this you won't be able to move, see, talk or feel anymore." She stood up without breaking the eye contact.

"I must say that I was expecting more from you . . . to see the powerful Kyūbi's host reduced to this. Well, well, well . . . I guess it can't be helped if you're such a pathetic and naive little brat . . . it's like you said . . . people change . . . Naruto," she said and once again Naruto felt a shiver down his spine.

"Yeah . . . that sure is right . . . oba-san," said Naruto and she looked down at him with a disgusted gaze that reminded him of the villagers in Konoha.

"If you're going to speak to me use my real name . . . It doesn't matter anyway but we may be . . . nice . . . during your death if you're polite" she said and blinked for the first time. "Use Konan . . . got it?"

"Hai . . . Konan-san," answered Naruto and couldn't believe himself! He was acting like her slave. Answering and obeying . . . when did he become so pathetic?

Somehow under all of this pressure and panic, Naruto had managed to keep himself calm, even though it wasn't like him. Normally he was naive and hyperactive, but now . . . He just was . . .

_This is it, huh_ . . .? Naruto thought when Konan finally broke the eye contact. _Is it here it will end? I couldn't save Sasuke after all, just because my death interrupted . . . the irony in life . . . _

"_**Just wait a little longer Naruto . . . you will not end your life here . . . trust me . . . neither would your friends nor I let that happen, but you have to believe in us . . ."**_

_What was that? Hello?_ Naruto called out in his mind. He was sure he had heard a voice but . . .

Was it just an illusion?


	3. The extraction

**Chapter Three: The Extraction**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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* * *

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Kakashi ran into Tsunade's office, panting heavily.

"Tsunade-sama," he started to say but stopped, because he had to catch his breath.

"What is it Kakashi? Have you found something yet?" she asked as she looked with worry at Kakashi who stood with his hands on his knees, panting.

"We've found Naruto's jacket down at the training fields . . . and about . . . 650 metres . . . from there we found another origami rose . . . they're heading south-west," Kakashi finished finally catching his breath.

"Good job, Kakashi. Is there something else?" Tsuande asked, looking a bit relieved when he stood up.

"Gaara, Temari and Kankuro are still in the village. When they found out that Naruto had been kidnapped they decided to stay in Konoha. Since Gaara and Naruto are good friends, Gaara wanted to help with the search for Naruto. They should have left Konoha yesterday, but they're still here for some reason and then this happened with Naruto," Kakashi explained while crossing his arms.

"Well, I'm not surprised since Gaara's the Fifth Kazekage. He shouldn't be here. He should be in Suna. He's just come here because of the meeting we had among the five great countries three days ago. Can he really do this, even if it is for a friend?" asked Tsunade with a frown.

"Seems like it, but I don't think he cares about his Kazekage title when it comes to his friends, especially Naruto," said Kakashi and Tsunade nodded in agreement.

"Where are the sand siblings now?" she asked.

"Down the training fields together with Konoha 11," Kakashi answered. "They're trying to find a trace of Naruto or Konan or blood. We don't know if he struggled or came with her without a fight. But I think Gaara, Temari and Kankuro want to join the search," he added.

Tsunade seemed a bit troubled by this. "Well, there's no time to waste anymore. To the training fields," she said.

When they come to the training fields, everyone was there including the sand siblings Gaara, Temari and Kankuro from Suna.

"Gaara-sama," Tsunade greeted him and stepped forward. "I know that you want to help us find Naruto, but do you really think it's such a great idea?"

"To obey orders is something I've never been so good at, and the elders in Suna don't like it that much, but Naruto's my friend, and I think you know why I'm doing this," Gaara answered with the same emotionless expression, as always, on his face.

"I understand, but you all can't come . . ." began Tsunade looking at all of them. However, she got interrupted.

"Nani?" asked Chōji and looked at her with burning fury but it was still full of respect since she, after all, was the Fifth Hokage of Konoha and a legendary Sannin.

" . . .because of security reasons," Tsuande finished and Chōji suddenly looked at something interesting on the ground.

"Neji, Lee, Kakashi, Sakura, Gaara and I will go and when we come back I want Gai, Ino, Chōji, Shino, Temari and Kankuro to check up the injured if there are any. Kurenai, you should rest, but if you want to, you can stay here with your team," said Tsunade and got a 'hai' as answer from them all.

"Good then, lets go!" she yelled and they left.

Naruto looked up at the ceiling and continued with his thoughts. "Pein-sama," he suddenly heard a voice say and he felt his life being sucked out of his body.

_Pein__ . . .__ he's the Akatsuki leader. Ero-sennin told me that back at the hospital. But if he's here it means they will begin with the extraction_, thought Naruto and his breathing went faster and his inhalations shorter.

"So . . . Uzumaki Naruto, the host of the powerful Kyūbi," said a man's deep voice outside of Naruto's line of vision. "Such a pleasure."

"Pein . . ." said Naruto quietly, but loud enough for Pein to hear.

"It's Pein-sama to you, if you're even going to talk to me," said Pein walking towards him so Naruto could see him.

Pein was a long, brown haired man with piercings all over his face. His eyes were grey blue–ish, but there was something different about them. His eyes were divided in circles in different shades of grey and blue. A read line surrounded the eye and it looked like a bloodline limit to Naruto.

Naruto didn't answer. He just looked at the man with fear, respect and hatred. He was the Akatsuki leader the reason for Gaara's death. Thanks to Chiyo-baa-sama, they were able to revive him.

"Let the fun begin," said Pein and jumped up to a huge finger, which was connected to an even larger hand.

_No . . .__this can't be happening__, _thought Naruto and felt his heart pounding harder and harder.

"Begin!" shouted Pein.

Naruto felt horrible pains go straight through his body like lightning, and then everything went black.

He couldn't see anything but himself, and he was getting paler and paler. The pain that went through his body was the only thing that could convince him about his existence; it was the only thing that told him he was alive.

_No . . . it can't . . . end like . . . this!_ Naruto thought as he screamed through the pain, but only to one else were there, just himself, the pain and the white surrounding him_._

" . . ._**is there a reality outside my mind . . .?" **_

" . . ._**what is knowledge . . .?" **_

" . . ._**what is truth . . .?" **_

" . . ._**what makes an action valuable . . .?"**_

"_Who's . . . there!?" Screamed a horrified Naruto when he heard the questions._

"_**Aren't these the questions you've always asked yourself?" **__said a voice to Naruto._

"_Yes . . . but how . . . can you . . . know that . . .?" he asked. It felt horrible to speak because of the pain._

"_**I've always been here, since the day Kyūbi attacked, even though you may not have noticed me," **__the voice answered. _

_Naruto tried to find the man who was talking to him._

"_Where . . . __are you__?" asked Naruto and noticed that he went paler._

"_**Where?" **__answered the voice like an echo of Naruto's question. __Suddenly__, a bright light appeared._

"_Who . . . are you . . .?" asked Naruto._

"_**Who I am? I hope that I'm the person I've always been. But I'm not sure if it matters anymore since I'm supposed to be gone from the world of the living," **_the voice answered.

_Naruto tried to identify __the voice__ but he __could not__._

_Was it himself speaking? His conscience? But it can't be can it? Kyūbi was like his conscience; no one else could be it . . ._

"_Why . . . are you here?" asked Naruto. He could see the light getting closer and it was changing its form . . . it was getting more human in its movements._

_The light became bigger. It looked like smoke or fog and it started to form contours of a human. But Naruto couldn't see who the human was because it was like watching_ _the sun, but a flat sun. Looking from the side he_ _could only see a thin, glowing string._

"_**Naruto . . .", **__said the voice. Naruto looked up at 'it' confused. "__**You're **__**strong**__** Naruto. You won't leave this world **__**for**__** a while because I won't let that happen."**_

"_But . . . who are you?" asked Naruto again. He went even paler and Naruto didn't know how, but if the person in front of him had eyes they would have looked worried._

"_**I'm someone that cares for you. I can't tell you more for the moment, but I believe that you'll figure it out soon. You see . . . you have the right to know Naruto, it's not like I don't want you to know," **__answered the voice and Naruto felt something inside him, not just the pain . . . but what was it?_

"_But if I'll . . . know it . . . later on, it . . . means that you . . . will either get . . . out of . . . my mind or . . . I'll . . . die here with . . . you . . ." said Naruto and made a face of pain. Once again he could feel the worried gaze on him, even though there weren't eyes to give it._

"_**Try to speak as little as possible because if you try to speak you'll only feel more pain", **__said the voice in a warm tone. "__**If you want to say something to me, think it. Since this is your mind I'll able to hear your thoughts."**_

"_Really?" Naruto asked or . . . rather thought._

_Naruto smiled, but then he felt his life disappearing. He looked down at his hands and saw how pale he was: he was becoming invisible. He presumed that his face looked pretty much the same._

"_But how am I supposed to survive this? I can't get out of here by myself, someone has to help me from the outside, or else I won't be able to do this," he thought so the man could hear, suddenly realising he didn't feel so much pain._

"_**Believe in yourself Naruto. What makes an action valuable?" **__asked the voice and Naruto could hear the happiness in his voice._

"_The reason to it," Naruto answered and smiled a true smile._

"_**Exactly. The reason for an action can be different from case to case but why you really do it, is something else. You can do it for love . . . for your friends . . . for money . . . for your health or someone else's health. But the reason for the action is always the answer," **__said the voice. _

_Naruto could feel that feeling again, deep inside him_

"_Is there a reality outside my mind?" Asked Naruto himself. "Yes, and it's to that reality I'm going back to."_

It was dark inside the cave except for one light. A red light that came out from a boy's mouth and eyes and it looked really painful.

"This is a waste of talent actually," Pein said as he looked down at the boy who was in horrible pain.

"How do you mean Pein-sama?" asked Tobi, looking at his leader.

"Naruto's normal chakra limits are unbelievable. They're extremely high without the help of Kyūbi. And his taijutsu is incredible," explained Pein while concentrating on the work at hand.

"Even if he seemed to be a naive, clumsy, idiotic boy . . . it was just a front," said Konan who looked at Naruto and then her childhood friend, Pein.

"Exactly," Pein agreed, while the rest of the Akatsuki looked at their leader and only female member. "Naruto is as good as the Copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi, maybe even stronger. When he wants to, he can use very powerful abilities that don't belong to Kyūbi. And his stamina is very strong indeed . . ."

"Before you came Pein . . . he was wondering a lot over something . . . at first he was terrified and then . . . he became so calm and quiet, so I asked him what he was thinking about . . . he said that he thought about the meaning of life," said Konan with no emotion on her face.

"I went into his memory, but it wasn't easy . . . somehow he blocked the biggest part of my jutsu but I caught these words . . . 'But a genjutsu is an illusion another person has created to get the advantage over someone . . . because you have knowledge about the situation from before . . .' He seemed to be thinking about questions that he couldn't find the answers for . . . 'Knowledge is easy to carry but hard to gather . . .'" she finished telling the others.

'Everyone can gather knowledge out of feelings, experiences and other people . . . What you have gone through once you can go through again whether you want it or not . . . but you can make a better situation out of the second time, because you have knowledge from the previous situation . . .' said Konan repeating Naruto's thoughts.

"It seems like the boy deserved the title as Konoha's number one knuckleheaded ninja," said Tobi. "The most unexpected . . ."

"How far Neji?" asked Tsunade.

"I can feel Naruto's chakra getting stronger, it is not that far . . ." began Neji, but Sakura interrupted him, with a pissed look on her face.

"We have been traveling for nearly thirty hours. An extraction takes three days so we have less then forty two hours to find Naruto and save him. How much longer do you think we have to go?" she asked while they were jumping through the trees.

"Maybe five more hours," answered Neji. "But we do not know how to get in to where they are and save him. If this is similar to Gaara, we may not be able to save him until tomorrow, _and_ we have to rest as well."

"We don't have time to rest!" shouted Sakura.

"We have to Sakura. If we don't then we won't have enough strength to save Naruto," Tsunade said. She seemed troubled by Neji's words because she wanted to save Naruto so bad.

"It's five hours to get there,_ plus_ seven hours if we're supposed to rest. Then we have less then twenty hours to save him!" Sakura said with anger in her voice. Her hope was disappearing.

"Naruto will survive this," said Gaara jumping next to Sakura. "He's not a person to give up so easily, even if it is against the Akatsuki."

Sakura smiled faintly at this. It was the truth, she knew, but it's not a good idea to piss the Akatsuki off.

"We'll have to rest here for today," Tsunade announced and landed on the ground, where there were high and dense trees, perfect for shelter.

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" the group said and jumped down as well.

"When do you think we'll get back to Konoha?" Lee asked Kakashi.

"Probably the day after tomorrow, but we don't know what Naruto's condition will be," answered Kakashi. "Actually . . . I'm not sure we needed so many people to rescue Naruto, but it's best to be prepared."

"Hai," Lee answered. He then took out some blankets for them, and after that he went and got some firewood.

"_How long until it's finished?" asked Naruto, noticing that the man in front of him was getting more visible._

"_**Well, you've been here for more then a day, let's say . . . forty hours," **__answered the man __while __Naruto sighed._

"_But if you have been __inside me__ since fifteen years ago, do you know what ha__s__ happened in my life?" __Naruto asked, while sitting down because his body hurt so much__**.**_

"_**Not always. **__**Only**__** in life threatening situations **__**have**__** I been able to see what was going on. And sometimes I can feel your feeling**__**s**__**, but it has only happened twice during my entire time here so don't worry**__**,"**__ he added quickly when he saw Naruto's__ shocked face _

"_**But what I've never been able to see is when Kyūbi has taken over or if you used its chakra . . . even in the slightest. But once I felt the pain from it, and it was really horrible," **__the man continued in a sad tone. _

"_It's indispensable," said Naruto __in__ a scared and sad tone._

_The man __soon__ became a figure with some human parts. __Naruto__ could see his hair, a bit of his face, and his hands but Naruto couldn't see any colour at all._

"_**I'm proud **__**of**__** you and you're really strong fighting Kyūbi like this," **__said the man. Now Naruto started to see eyes __within __the yellow glow. _

"_I don't hear that __too__ often . . ." Naruto __replied. He __felt really tired and the man __noticed__ that his face was chalk white and his breathing was irregular, but __even __still . . . he smiled towards the man._

"_**But there is **__**something that really impressed me**__**," **__continued the man. __At this, Naruto looked at him with curiosity__. "__**When someones life is on the line, **__**whether it was **__**your own or another **__**person's**__**, you can use chakra which doesn't belongs to Kyūbi."**_

"_Nani? I do!?" Asked Naruto in surprise._

"_**Yes you do," **__said the man and Naruto could feel that he smiled towards him. "__**Do you remember what Kakashi said during your training with him? When you created the Fuuton Rasengan? About your chakra?"**_

"_Well, he said a lot of things . . . er . . . oh! He said that I __have__ at least twice as much chakra as him, _without_ the help of Kyūbi! But with the help of Kyūbi it was up to a hundred times more or something," Naruto said with a weak smile. He was getting weaker __by the minute __and the man noticed this. "But how come I __have __so much chakra? And is it really twice __as much as __Kakashi-__sensei's__?"_

"_**You were obviously born with so much chakra and stamina. That's why **__**Kyūbi and I**__** can live at the same time inside you . . . actually . . . **__**that is the**__** reason to why we can live here at all. And about you and Kakashi's chakra . . . it's not twice as much **__**from **__**what I've noticed . . ."**_

"_I knew it! It was a joke . . ." interrupted Naruto, but the man continued with a hidden smile in all that yellow._

" _**. . .it's rather t**__**hree**__** or four times as much. It's hard to decide since Kyūbi and your own chakra **__**are a**__** bit mixed," **__he finished._

_Naruto looked at him with tired and shocked eyes. "Four times . . .?"_

"_**Yes, that's right! When you were about twelve years old you had more chakra **__**than**__** a Jounin and for each year that passed your chakra grew even stronger. It's really rare **__**for**__** a kid **__**to have**__** so much chakra like you, and it's not easy to handle. With so much chakra it's hard to make jutsus which requires only a little chakra like Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique), Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique)) and Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique). And if your chakra control is bad, it's life threatening," **__the man explained, while Naruto smiled sarcastically._

"_Well, my chakra control sucks, but still . . .I can use it, he said. __Isn't that __the irony __of__ life?" Naruto laughed and the man laughed with him._

"_**Well . . . as I said, I'm proud **__**of**__** you. You**__**'ve **__**never given up, even though **__**your**__**opponents**__** have been much stronger. Your will power and your bad chakra control kind of . . .hold each other in control. Your bad chakra control meets good willpower and becomes a straight line,"**__ the man explained._

_Naruto would have blushed if he had any colour left on his skin. "Is it even logical?" he asked._

"_**Not in the slightest! But we know that it works, right? But you have to promise me something. Don't push yourself **__**too**__** far. In fact, you should have died of exhaustion a long time ago," **__the man told Naruto in a more serious tone._

"_If I had had a dad, you would have sounded like him right now," said Naruto, sadly._

_The man didn't answer but laid a warm hand on Naruto's shoulder, which made him look up at the man. He sat next to Naruto but said nothing._

"_**I think it's time to get out of here," **__he finally said and Naruto nodded in agreement._

"_But how?" Naruto asked. The man still __had__ his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto felt that feeling again, and it was getting __on__ his nerves, because he didn't know __where it was coming from or why he felt it._

"_**Believe in yourself Naruto. Use your own chakra. You don't have access to Kyūbi's chakra here, so you have to trust in your own powers," **__said the man in a very serious but warm tone._

"_What do I have to do?" asked Naruto, who looked really tired._

"_**You have to gather all your own chakra to your heart. After a while let it float back to its right places. Continue with that so you **__**have**__** chakra covering your whole body. It's much harder then it sound**__**s,**__** but you have to try. When your chakra's molecules are close to one another, but at the same time far away, a chemical reaction will be created. I can't explain more, you just have to do it," **__explained the man._

_Naruto nodded again. "But if I do this right, will you be released as well?" asked Naruto,__ while he__ tried to __remember__ what the man had said about the chemical reaction and the molecules._

"_**Yes, but **__**this **__**will have a side effect. My soul ha**__**s**__** lived here for so long **__**that **__**I've gotten a lot of your life powers' so . . . when we get back to the world you may look different . . . you'll be younger," **__he explained._

"_I'll be younger? Both mentally and physically? What do you mean_?" _Naruto asked in confusion._

"_**Well, when I got sealed inside you I was in my early twenties and you're fifteen . . . so . . . I guess you'll look like a two or **__**three**__**-year-old , but only on the outside. You'll **__**only **__**change physical**__**ly**__**, not mental**__**ly**__**," **__the man __clarified._ _**"At least I think so, you may act a little different too, but . . . well, well . . ."**_

_Naruto glared at him. "A __three__-year-old kid!? __You've__ got to be kidding me!? So you mean I have to relive thirteen damn years of my life? Will I even remember __anything__ from my life as a teenager?" Naruto asked, __incredulously._

_The man could feel how Naruto strained every nerve in his body._ "_**You'll remember everything. You'll only look like a **__**three**__**-year-old boy. Your nin-, tai- and genjutsu abilities won't disappear. You'll be the same Naruto as before. A fifteen-year-old teenager, **__**in a three-year-old's body.**__** You have to pay a price for freedom and survival," **__the man __told Naruto__, __who had calmed down a bit__._

"_**You may be able to get back to you**__**r**__** fifteen-year-old **__**self**__**, but only time can deside that," **__said the man __as he__ ruffled Naruto's hair._

"_Yeah, but . . . you probably __know__ that I've quit as a shinobi. Tsunade-baachan wouldn't let me leave the village in search __of__ Uchiha Itachi," _ _Naruto said, looking away._

"_**No I didn't know that!" **__the man __responded, shocked__. "__**You can't quit as a shinobi Naruto! It's your dream to become Hokage one day, right? You can't just let that vanish in smoke because of something that happened between you and Tsunade-sannin! You idiot!"**_

"_You're probably right, but I was so angry with her__.__ Sasuke's my best friend, but the only thing he thinks about is revenge on his brother," explained Naruto. "He wants to find Itachi and kill him__.__ So to get Sasuke back to the village, I have to find Itachi before __he does__."_

_Naruto went on. "I just can't let him do this to himself! He was and __is __still is my best friend! My first friend! I can't let him do it . . . he was the only one that noticed me . . . I just can't . . ." finished Naruto. _

_The man __knew__ that if Naruto __didn't__ get out of there soon he __w__ould lose his life._

"_**I understand Naruto . . ." **__said the man, and he really did understand because one of the feeling__s__ he had felt from Naruto was the feeling of love and comfort Sasuke had given him._

"_**Do as I said **__**before **__**and gather you**__**r**__** chakra to your heart, and then release it. When you wake up, your appearance will have changed. But both of us will live," **__he said with a concerned tone in his voice. __**"It may sound egoistic **__**that **__**I'll finally be free, but you will at least live and if you want to I can help you in your life . . ."**_

"_Okay . . ." said Naruto, __closing his eyes. __He tried to gather his chakra that he knew he had, and it was sure as hell that it was harder then it sounded._

"_**Your strongest chakra's deep inside you. Find it and gather it together with the other. Reach it," **__the man instructed. _

_Naruto thought that it sounded strange, but he did as he was told. "I'm trying . . ."_ hesaid. "_But it really is hard to find my strongest chakra as you said, and the pain is just making it worse . . ."_

"_**Naruto . . . you can do it . . ."**_

"_I'm trying my best . . ."_

"_**All of your friends will be waiting for you. You have to do this and I know you're capable of it . . ." **_

"_But I . . ." began Naruto, but stopped and took a deep __breath__. He relaxed and searched deeper. It was like looking for Kyūbi inside his subconscious, a lot of pipes and water everywhere. But there was only one path that lead to Kyūbi, so it was probably the same here. Even though everything was white, he flew forward with an incredulous speed._

"_There . . ." Naruto said__, feeling__ a place with a lot of power._

_So much power . . . the air vibrated and it was hard to breathe . . . _

"_**You can do it Naruto . . . believe in yourself . . . and I believe in you . . ." **__said the man._

_Before Naruto could go any farther, the man embraced him__, and then a bright light appeared and everything became white and silent._


	4. Blondaime, At Your Service

**Chapter Four: Blondaime_,_ At Your Service**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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"Pein-sama!" said Konan who looked down in horror at Naruto. "What's happening here? It just stopped!"

"I don't know, but it seems as if it's his doing," said Pein, inclining his head towards Naruto. Anger was clear in his voice. "Don't break the chain! Whatever happens don't stop the ritual!" he screamed at the other Akatsuki members.

"We got to be close," said Sakura, as she looked at Neji who was in front of her.

"It should be here somewhere," said Neji. "There is less than ten minutes left."

"_I hope so, or else someone's a dead man!_" Sakura wasn't able to say that out loud, because of an explosion near them. It had probably happened under a lake, as a lot of water was falling down from the sky and then hit the ground.

"Naruto!" Tsunade screamed, and jumped towards the explosion. Everyone else followed her.

_Everything's so dark . . . and cold . . ._ Naruto thought.

He laid on something hard on his right side with his left hand under his head. He almost looked asleep: minus the blood dripping out from his mouth and his chalk white skin.

Naruto also had different clothes on him: A plain black T-shirt and a pair of baggy grey trousers. His feet were bare. His hair was different as well. It was longer than before, not by much though and it was still blond, but dirty, and it was as a mess as always.

_Where am I? Did it work? The pain is gone . . . _Naruto thought, and opened his eyes carefully.

At first, his vision was blurry, but it soon cleared. As he looked around, he noticed a man, lying on the floor, about twenty metres away. Naruto couldn't see his face but he had blond messy hair and he was dressed in Jounin clothes with a white coat. On the coat were red flames.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "Yo . . . Yond . . . aime . . .!" Naruto tried to scream, but it came out a harsh whisper instead. His voice was hoarse, he realised.

The man moved a bit.

Naruto eyes opened even wider in shock when he heard his own voice. This wasn't the voice that belonged to a fifteen-year-old, but rather a three-year-old boy.

_So it really did work . . . but then . . . the man inside me was . . . the Yondaime Hokage! This can't be true, _Naruto thought in shock.

The man moved again and now Naruto could clearly see his face. Blue eyes met blue.

"Naruto?" said the man and looked at him with dizzy eyes.

Naruto couldn't answer; he was too shocked. The man's voice was warm and deep, but the worried tone it carried . . .Naruto wasn't used to hearing that.

"Naruto!" screamed the man as he got up on his feet and ran towards Naruto.

He was staggering, but came over to Naruto and got down on his knees beside him.

"Naruto can you hear me?" asked the Yondaime.

Naruto looked up at him with a blurry view, but he saw that the Yondaime was by his side.

"Yondaime?" Naruto asked again, with the same hoarse voice as before. It sounded weak and innocent. "You're alive . . ."

"I told you that I've always been inside if you, but we have to get out of here," he answered. "And you don't have to call me Yondaime, call me Minato."

He then picked Naruto up with care and held him in his arms, against his chest, so he would be a bit more comfortable. He also dried the blood away from Naruto's mouth and looked at him with concern at the nearly lifeless boy in his arms.

"You did well Naruto," Minato said as he hugged the boy.

Naruto felt that feeling again, what was it . . .?

"But we have to get out of here as I said. Do you think I can run without hurting you?"

"Yeah . . .I think so . . ." answered Naruto with a faint voice. He felt empty of chakra and life, even though this was better than during the extraction.

Minato took a moment to look around. Apparently, the Akatsuki had left the cave when they knew what was going on, so nobody was there except for the two of them.

Naruto could feel the warmth from Minato's body and somehow he felt safe. He had never felt something for someone, so this was new for him. This man cared about him like an equal. This man wanted to save him even though he sealed Kyūbi inside him.

"Yonda- Minato . . . sama?" began Naruto after Minato stood up with him still in his arms.

"Try not to speak too much, we have to get out of here. We were under a lake and your chakra made waves that pushed away the water and now it's streaming back here," answered Minato with the same worried tone in his voice as before, while he looked down at Naruto.

"Hai, demo . . . arigato . . . gozaimashita," he said as he hugged Minato's chest.

Naruto didn't know what he was doing. To hug the Yondaime Hokage like this! It wasn't like Naruto at all!

Minato could feel warmth inside him. He looked down at Naruto and saw that the boy was trying his best to stay awake.

"It's okay to rest," he told Naruto. His eyes closed almost immediately.

The boy was soon asleep and Minato looked up at the sky above him. He saw the huge hole Naruto's chakra had created. Then suddenly, his body was covered in a yellow smoke and his eyes were glowing blue. One minute he was there, then the next, he was gone like the wind.

"Naruto . . .?" said Tsunade when she saw a yellow bright light pass by. "MINATO!"

Kakashi stepped wrong when he heard the name Tsunade shouted, and Lee and Sakura had to help him stand up so he wouldn't fall.

"Minato-sensei . . ." he said quietly, breathing heavily. _It's impossible! Tsunade-sama's going senile!_

The yellow light disappeared and just a few metres away stood a blond man with a little boy in his arms. He looked at them with questioning eyes until he saw Kakashi. Minato's eyes widened in recognition.

"Kakashi?" he asked. It looked like Kakashi was going to faint, he was so shocked.

"Yondaime!" Sakura yelled while looking at the blond man with big green eyes. "But you can't be . . . it's impossible . . . you're supposed to be . . ."

"Minato! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing here!" Tsunade roared at him and jumped forward.

Naruto woke up suddenly when he heard Tsunade's voice and looked around. He saw his friends, along with Tsunade and Kakashi. He noticed that they were all staring at the Yondaime.

"Baa-chan . . .?" he asked.

Tsunade looked down at him with surprise. "Nani?" she asked. She looked confusingly at the Yondaime and then down at Naruto.

She wondered who the boy was in Minato's arms, but then she saw the whiskers on his cheeks and froze.

"Naruto!" Tsuande screamed so loud that even Minato jumped which Naruto felt also. "What on earth happened to you?"

"Well . . . I . . ." began Naruto, but was interrupted by Minato.

"When we get back to Konoha we can explain it all," he said quickly.

Tsunade looked up at him with a doubtful smirk. "How can you be alive?" she asked with the same smirk.

Minato sighed, it seemed he would have to tell her before they got to Konoha. He glanced at Naruto's friends and Tsunade understood immediately.

"You all need to go over there," she said, pointing at the indicated spot. With a huge sigh they went a couple of decimetres away.

Minato then explained about how his soul had been sealed in Naruto when he had sealed Kyūbi in him, and how he and Naruto had shared a body for the previous fifteen years.

Tsunade looked very perplexed. "How is that even possible?" she asked in a skeptical tone.

"To be honest . . .I don't know," answered Minato and gave her a smile; a wide smile, which looked a lot like Naruto's 'foxy grin.'

"But how can we be sure that you're the Hokage? Are you really Yondaime Hokage? Can we be sure you're not an intruder imitating him, just to get to Konoha?" asked Kakashi while Tsunade gestured to Naruto's friends that they could come back.

"Think you can stand up now, Naruto?" Minato asked, looking down at him.

"Hai," answered Naruto and Minato put him down on the ground.

Sakura, Lee, Neji, Gaara, Kakashi and Tsunade looked at Naruto with concern and confusion because of his appearance and weakness.

Naruto was now very little, looking to be about three-years-old. Standing next to Minato, he barely reached his knees.

_Naruto . . .what happened to you? _thought both Kakashi and Sakura when they saw their team mate.

"Okay . . ." said Minato while he made some handseals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!" roared Minato as he slammed his fist on the ground.

Smoke appeared and when it cleared a figure stood there. It was the toad that Naruto recognized as Gamakichi. He looked at Minato and then at the toad in front of him.

"Yo Naruto! Waddya call me here for? I thought you'd call pops," said the toad when he saw Naruto. "But ya've shrunk, haha! That's funny, I've to tell Gamatatsu 'bout this!"

"I didn't summon you Gamakichi . . . it was Yondaime-sama," Naruto said as he looked up at Minato, who looked very confused about Naruto's relationship with the toad.

"Oh . . . Yondaime-sama . . ." Gamakichi started but then froze. "Yondaime-sama! But pops said ya died with Kyūbi!"

"Well I'm here and I just wanted to confirm that I am who I claim to be. By summoning you I showed that. You have to sign the toad contract Jiraiya has to be able to summon you guys," Minato answered.

Gamakichi didn't say a word.

"You can go now," said Minato and he disappeared in a puff of smoke but his frown didn't go unnoticed by Minato.

"Well, you really are the Yondaime Hokage. As you said, you can't summon a toad if you haven't signed Jiraiya's contract," Tsunade said looking at him with relief. "But how is it that Naruto's a three-year-old boy now?"

"I really don't have time to explain that all now, it's a lot to talk about," answered Minato, bending over picking Naruto up again. He seemed a bit offended by this, but at the same time he blushed, because deep down inside, he felt safe and loved somehow.

"Naruto should get back to the village as soon as possible. I don't now how his body is reacting to this change," Minato explained while holding Naruto like the little child he looked like, on his hip.

"Well I can at least take a quick look at him now, but if there's something wrong he should get to the hospital," Tsunade said, nodding while Naruto yawned.

"Okay, so you're serious?" asked Gaara who looked at Naruto with a confused gaze while Tsunade used a technique to check Naruto's health.

"He's serious Gaara . . ." Naruto answered with a tiny voice while looking at him with tired eyes. He yawned again before continuing. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto . . . and he is Minato-sama . . . Yondaime Hokage . . ." He was still recovering from the incident with the Akatsuki. He was very tired and all he wanted do to was to go to sleep.

Gaara looked at Naruto curiously, who had just laid his tired head on Minato's shoulder. Normally he would never do something like this, but this was different. He felt that feeling once again and he couldn't describe it with words. It just felt right.

Minato looked down at him with a little smile, while Tsunade smiled wide.

_Well . . . they really are father and son after all, _she thought. _But I doubt that Naruto knows that Minato is his father . . . but still . . . you can't be sure. It looks like Minato has made a good impression on him already._

"Kakashi?" asked Minato, looking at Kakashi who gazed back at him.

"Hai, sensei?"

"I just had to see if really was you," said Minato and smiled. "You're just like I remembered you . . . You haven't changed much. How old are you now?"

"Well . . . twenty nine," answered Kakashi and made a face.

"Haha!" laughed Minato and Naruto strained himself so as not to fall off. "I'm sorry Naruto, but how often do you think one's sensei's is younger than the student?"

"Hey!" warned Kakashi, glaring at Minato. "Sure I'm older but still . . . You should be in your fourties soon. Technically . . ."

"Oh my God . . ." Minato exclaimed looking worried. "I'm as good as dead! To be that old!" he said while Tsunade hit him on the head.

"Baka!" she roared while Naruto laughed a childlike laugh at Minato's facial expression. "You haven't changed a bit, did you know that? And what's wrong with being older than Kakashi!"

"Sorry Tsunade-sama and don't laugh . . . _Naru-chan_," said Minato with a smirk and Naruto stopped laughing.

"Hey watch it . . . _Blondaime_," Naruto said in a hoarse voice, but it had a teasing tone to it and Minato looked shocked at him. "Just 'cause I look like a little kid . . . doesn't mean that I'm a nobody . . ."

"You just insulted the Yondaime . . ." said Sakura and a ticking nerve was visible on her temple.

"Oi . . . Sakura-chan . . . take it easy," Naruto said with a nervous smile. "You know that you shouldn't beat people that are smaller than yourself . . . right?"

"Oh . . . I know that, but you have always been an exception," she said as she walked over to him and Minato. "I don't care if you're a little kid!"

She roared the last sentence with such a power that it made Naruto scream. He hugged Minato tight around his neck so that their cheeks met.

"Actually . . . Sakura-san . . . was it? You have to calm down, it's okay, really," said Minato, looking at her and then sideways at Naruto who was still looking with fear at Sakura.

"Gomen nasai, Hokage-sama!" she hurried to say and bowed.

"Arigatou," Naruto said and breathed out.

Minato just smiled. "Any time, _Naru-chan_," he answered and got a glare from him in return.

_Geez, they really do look alike! _thought Sakura looking at the two blondes.

"We really should get back to the village now. We have to make sure Naruto gets to the hospital and back to normal," Lee said and Neji nodded in agreement.

"He seems to be completely fine. We just need to get him back in his normal body again," said Tsunade.

"Well we should hurry up anyway," Minato finally said, and Naruto could tell from his face that he knew how the situation was. So they set off to head back to Konoha.

_I wonder if I'm going to stay like this forever? I should age like before but in that case I'm going to relive thirteen years of my life! Minato said that I may be able to change back to my real age sometimes. Like when I call on Kyūbi, I can call in my body. I wonder if it's really going to work like that, but . . . what are the others going to say when they hear about this?_ thought Naruto while they jumped through the trees.

"What are you thinking about Naruto?" asked Minato all of a sudden.

"Oh, well . . . I . . . " began Naruto but he didn't know how to say the words, actually . . . he didn't know what to say, because he didn't want to really say that he was . . . well . . . both scared and confused.

"I was thinking about what you said to me . . . down at the lake . . ." Naruto continued with the same hoarse voice as before. Minato listened, "If I'm going to remain in this body forever . . . or if I'll be able to return to my real form . . . like you said . . ."

"Oh, that . . ." Minato answered him and smiled. "Don't worry about that. You remembered what I said and that's good."

"Well . . . yeah, but I'm going to relive thirteen years of my life . . ." Naruto said. "It's not exactly what I had in mind my for myself . . ."

"I know that this is strange but you're a tough guy, you'll be able to handle it. And as you know I've been away from this world for fifteen years and now . . . and then all of a sudden I'm here. I have to go back to what I lost. It's strange for me," Minato told Naruto. He understood his point; they were in the same boat here.

"You haven't aged, right . . .?" asked Naruto. "I mean . . . a soul can't age physically without a body . . . only mentally . . .?"

"Yes, that's right. A body can't last forever, but a soul is something that will always be living. And yes, you're right, I didn't age when I was within you," he answered while Naruto listened carefully.

"Will you still be the Hokage . . .? Will both you and Tsunade have the title . . .?" asked Naruto.

"I don't know . . . We'll see. I had barely been the Hokage for a year when Kyūbi attacked Konoha, and if you want my point of view it was the toughest time in my life," laughed Minato. "But still, it was my dream to become Hokage and it came true, so why should I complain?"

Naruto inhaled and turned his head away. Yondaime had the same dreams as he had? Or still has . . .? To one day become Hokage? But it's not so strange that Minato became the Yondaime. He's really strong, both physically and mentally even though his body's built for speed.

"I want to become Hokage one day . . . even if that dream is farther away now than before . . . if you think about my situation . . ." Naruto said and smiled.

"Don't say things like that. Maybe you'll become Konoha's youngest Hokage ever? Who knows?" Minato said, smiling down at the boy.

"Yeah . . . maybe . . ." said Naruto and laughed his childlike laugh, which filled Minato's body and soul with warmth. "But still . . . who wants a Jinchūriki as the Hokage?" Minato's face faltered.

"Naruto . . . I'm terribly sorry for what I did to you," Minato said. Now it was his turn to look away from Naruto, because he couldn't look him in the eyes.

"No . . . you don't need to apologise! I understand why you did it . . . and you seem to be a nice person . . . I don't think you just picked an orphan, just because you had to . . ." said Naruto and smiled at him even though Minato had looked away.

"Besides . . . Kyūbi made me stronger, right . . .? And look at Gaara . . . he was the host for Shukaku, the one tailed demon . . . and thanks to Kyūbi I knew how he felt . . . and because of that we became friends . . .well . . . not until after our fight," Naruto assured Minato like it was nothing, but the truth was different.

"It's not okay Naruto . . ." said Minato quietly.

"Hokage-sama . . .?" asked Naruto, carefully.

"It's Minato . . . to be hated by an entire village just because you're a Jinchūriki is something I won't accept. They think that person is something evil, but it's the hate they give to them that causes their lust to kill," he said.

Naruto looked up at his face. "Honestly . . . he made me stronger. I know that I have Kyūbi inside me, but the first time I found out I decided something . . . I wanted to become strong with my own power so I could show the villagers that I was a person just like them . . . but . . . thanks to Kyūbi I have been able so save many of my friends and other people . . . and I'm beginning to think differently about him now . . . sometimes I just wanted to die but I never gave up . . ." Naruto said. It was hard to hear such a little boy speak about something like death and monsters in the way he did, such an easy way.

"I almost died because of the way I pushed myself . . . but I wanted to be strong . . . without Kyūbi's help . . . and I hope I really have too . . ." Naruto continue. "But I know that Kyūbi's chakra is mixed with my own . . ."

"You're really something Naruto. But you don't have to be the strongest or the smartest person in Konoha, and from now on . . . you don't need to carry this heavy burden. Kyūbi and the pain which comes with it," Minato answered. _Because I don't want you to lose your life because of loneliness or pain . . . and I don't want you to even think about it . . . to give up to the darkness._

"What do you mean . . .?" Naruto asked him.

"I've only seen a little bit of your life, barely a percent actually, and I know that you're acting in a special way towards other people. You're always put in a situation where you either cry or laugh, and you choose to laugh all the time. It's something unusual Naruto," explained Minato.

Naruto was speechless for a moment. Then he said, "Arigatou . . ." very quietly.

"You shouldn't thank me, Naruto. It's not good that you are hiding behind a mask of happiness and smiles," Minato said and Naruto didn't know what to say.

"Hokage-sama! Naruto! We're staying here over night because we can't continue in the dark, " Sakura yelled from in front of them.

Neither Naruto nor Minato had noticed the dark sky.

"We can talk later if you want to," said Minato. "But it's up to you," he said again with a smile towards Naruto.

"H . . . hai!" Naruto answered. _I wonder why he wants to talk to me so much. Is it because of Kyūbi? He was the one who sealed it inside me after all and . . . maybe he wants to make it up?_

"I am going to get some firewood," said Minato putting Naruto down on the ground and then disappeared.

"Itai . . .!" screamed Naruto in a hoarse voice, fell backwards on the ground.

"Naruto!" asked Kakashi running towards him. "What is it? Where does it hurt?"

"I haven't walked for hours . . . don't you think my body would be a _bit_ stiff?" he asked and Kakashi smiled under his mask.

"The most unpredictable shinobi in Konoha . . ." said Kakashi under his breath and helped Naruto up on his feet.

"Well . . . I don't get that title for nothing, right . . .?" Naruto asked and stretched his hands and yawned big. As with Minato, he barely reached Kakashi's knees.

"Done," said a voice from behind them and Minato appeared with his hands full of firewood. "Now we'll be able to make a fire," he said while putting it down on the ground.

They made fire, ate and then went to sleep. Well . . . nearly everyone went to sleep, one person sat up from his spot on the ground between Tsunade and Kakashi and looked up at the stars.

_I wonder what you're doing now Sasuke? _thought Naruto and stood up.


	5. What did you say?

**Chapter Five: What Did You Say?**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_

* * *

_

Naruto started walking away from the others and was too sleepy to notice how far he went. Presently, he stumbled and fell. He didn't bother to get back up on his feet . . . he was just too tired.

Naruto wasn't himself at the moment. He wasn't using his brain and body in the same way, but it's only temporary. He was still thinking but in a different way . . . and for the moment he was thinking about the Yondaime. How he could be alive? Why he had gotten sealed inside Naruto?

It just wasn't possible! How can a man do _Shiki Fūjin _and survive? It says that the death god, the Shinigami, has to get the user's soul in exchange for the power of the Shiki Fūjin_. _Even if . . . the user was the Yondaime . . . no one's immortal . . .

"It . . . isn't possible . . ." mumbled Naruto.

He was fast asleep a moment later, curling up into a ball.

It was cold and the rest of the group was still by the fire and under a blanket.

Back at the camp, Kakashi woke up. He looked around and noticed that Naruto wasn't with them. "Naruto . . .?" he whispered. _Where have you __gone__ this time? _

He stood up and looked around but he couldn't see the kid anywhere. He walked past Sakura and Gaara, who finally was able to sleep, Tsunade and the Yondaime . . .

"Where are you going . . .?" asked a tired Minato who had just grabbed Kakashi's ankle with a pretty hard grasp for someone who just woke up.

"Minato-sensei," said Kakashi in surprise.

He looked down at the man who looked back at him with tired eyes. "Well, I . . ." he hesitated to continue.

"Kakashi?" asked Minato, looking at him questioningly.

"It seems that Naruto is gone," he said finally, feeling Minato's grasp around his ankle tighten, but he couldn't see anything in the man's face.

Why hadn't he noticed? "Nani . . .?"

"Naruto isn't in the camp anymore so I was on my way to look for him," Kakashi explained looking at his feet. "And one more thing . . . if you don't let my foot go . . ." he said pointing at his foot and Minato saw it was turning blue.

"Gomen . . . but where do you think Naruto could be?" asked Minato, letting Kakashi's foot go.

He sat up and looked at Kakashi with a worried expression.

Kakashi wasn't used to seeing that look on his sensei's face. He was always so calm and could think clear in all situations. "I don't know, but I think you should help me go find him. With Naruto you never know what could happen," he finished while Minato stood up.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Minato said, jumping up quickly into the closest tree and then to another. _Where the bloody hell are you Naruto!?_

_Naruto__ knew this place. It was the path he had visit__ed__ so many times before. __It was__also __the __same__ feeling he had felt the first time he went __t__here. _

"_Kyūbi__,"_ _he said when he came to the huge bars._

"_**So . . . you have come here again? Is it to borrow my powers? I've seen a lot of things lately. Things that **__**are**__** . . . unusual . . ." **__Kyūbi __finished __with a tired and dark voice. He didn't __have his usual __smirk like __previous__ times._

"_I thought you were gone. The Akatsuki should have extracted you," Naruto __answered __looking__up at the blood red eyes through the bars._

"_**So did I, but when you used that chakra you had . . . I was able to get back to your body. Even though it isn't what I wanted. I want to be free . . ." **__answered Kyūbi._

_Naruto didn't move; his face was __devoid __of emotion. "How are you feeling?" he asked, and couldn't believe himself asking it, because he was asking the great Kyūbi, the nine-tailed fox – the monster who destroyed Konoha and took thousands of lives – about his health._

"_**What **__**kind of**__** question **__**is that**__**?" **__roared Kyūbi and Naruto could feel a killing aura in the air. __**"Do you really think that I want a pathetic little brat's pity? It's ridiculous! What the bloody hell are you thinking!?"**_

_Naruto __decided not to__ answer. I__nstead, __he just turned around and walked __down__ the same path which had brought him out of his subconscious hundreds of times before. Kyūbi's eyes followed him the whole way._

"Naruto?" Minato called, as he jumped from branch to branch.

"Naruto!?" shouted Kakashi, who was following behind Minato, with just a few metres between them._ Where are you?_

Minato suddenly stopped and listened carefully. Kakashi stopped also at the same branch . . . and waited.

"Hokage . . . Kyūbi . . ." mumbled a voice, close by.

"It seems like Naruto feel asleep out here," Kakashi observed with relief and smiled. "Guess he forgot time . . ."

Minato didn't answer; he just hurried towards the voice's location. He listened for more words while scanning the area for Naruto's chakra. Then he spotted blond messy hair on the ground barely thirty metres away and his eyes widened. He jumped as fast as he could without using a jutsu.

"Naruto," Minato said as he reached the boy who was asleep on the ground. _You really want me greyhaired before I'm forty. _

He laughed mentally and smiled in relief when Kakashi landed three metres away.

"Thank, Kami . . ." Kakashi sighed, closing his visible eye.

Minato carefully picked Naruto up and cradled him in his arms . . . the same way as he had done before . . .with Naruto's head on his shoulder. He hugged him tight and close.

"He seems cold," Minato said, while feeling Naruto's hands. This made Naruto move in his sleep, trying to get comfortable.

Kakashi was silently observing all this until now. "Well I have to say it . . . you're acting like a good father Minato-sensei," he said which made Minato smile.

"I do my best," Minato answered, hugging Naruto again. "But if he keeps doing this - running away and stuff . . . I'll become over protective and I don't think he'll like that."

Both men smiled and went back to the camp where the rest of the group was still asleep, except Tsunade who opened an eye when she felt them coming closer to the place.

"Where have you two . . ." she yawned big. " . . .been, huh?"

"Naruto had a nightly adventure for himself so Minato-sensei and I had to go find him," explained Kakashi, while both he and Minato sat down on their blankets.

Minato held Naruto in the same way a little girl would have held a porcelain doll. He had opened his flat jacket so Naruto would keep warm while sleeping . . . conveniently using Minato as his pillow.

Tsunade and Kakashi looked admiringly at Minato who held his son is such a loveable way.

"As I said before . . ." interrupted Kakashi, causing both Tsunade and Minato to look at him. "You're a really good father, you're not just acting like one . . . you are one."

Tsunade smiled and tried to get back to sleep. Kakashi and Minato lay down on the ground. Minato laid Naruto next to him in and held him in a warm embrace, just like a little child holding on to a stuffed animal.

Before Kakashi and Tsunade went back to sleep they looked at the father with his son in his arms and they could see that a smile graced Naruto's lips. He held on to Minato subconsciously, and the sight was so beautiful.

"Good night . . . my son," Minato whispered, kissing Naruto lightly on the forehead.

Naruto slowly woke up early the next morning and noticed that something warm was very close to him, but he knew that he had fallen asleep in the woods the previous night and that it had been cold. He opened his eyes and saw something dark blue in front of him, but he couldn't tell what it was, because it was too close. He looked up and saw a sleeping man's face.

_Blondaime! _Naruto thought, shocked.

His body stiffened visibly and he felt Minato's grasp around him tighten a bit.

_Has he slept with me in his arms the whole night? Why does he care so much . . .?! _thought Naruto, looking away from the man's face.

Naryto tried to move carefully so he wouldn't wake Minato up, but with each movement he made, Minato's grasp tightened even more around him. He sighed, as he lifted Minato's arm which was around Naruto's back.

_In situations like this it's pretty good to be small, _Naruto thought when Minato's arm was over his blonde, small head.

Before Naruto could do much more, he felt Minato's arm twitch, and the next thing he knew, Minato's arms were suddenly around his waist.

"Aah!" screamed Naruto, noticing the other people who were sleeping around him.

"Morning . . ." Minato said, and held Naruto upside down, so all the blood streamed down to Naruto's head, quickly turning it red.

"Lemmy go! Lemmy go!" screamed Naruto, while waking up everyone in the camp. "Let . . . me . . . GO!"

Minato just laughed and looked at the meaningless fight Naruto was giving him.

"You're only hurting yourself," he answered while Naruto glared at him. "Have you ever heard about the word please?"

Naruto stopped fighting and glared at him again. It was pure hate but Minato only laughed as did everyone else looking at the two blondes.

"Try Naruto, it's not that hard," Sakura teased him and smiled. "But just so you know . . . when you get down from there I'm going to kick you so hard that you won't be able to walk for the rest of the month. I don't like when people wake me up this early in the morning . . . especially not when it's a scream from a certain someone . . ."

Naruto looked with horror at Sakura and then to Minato with a pleading expression.

"Do you really think that I'm going to help you?" Minato teased, laughing. "Not a chance _Naru-chan_! You're on your own!"

Naruto paled as Sakura cracked her knuckles. The rest laughed at Naruto's face.

"Please! Please let me down!" screamed a panicked Naruto and turned around trying to get loose.

"As you wish . . ." Minato said, letting him go.

Naruto fell to the ground head first. Sakura stepped forward. Naruto was down on all fours when he saw Sakura coming. He quickly crawled on all fours to Minato and then jumped up on his back.

"What the . . .?" began Minato, but Naruto's grip around his throat and neck interrupted him . . . Naruto was shaking with fear. _Naruto . . .?_

"You . . .! Baka! To take cover behind Yondaime-sama!" roared Sakura and held her clenched fist visible for Naruto to see.

Minato looked at Sakura, confused; she was really terrifying. Naruto, meanwhile was looking at her from behind the safety of Minato's left shoulder.

"I don't see a problem with it. I realised what was happening and then came up with a solution . . ." Naruto answered. He wasn't shaking anymore, much to Minato's relief and continued to observe the two.

"Have you borrowed a brain from someone? A pure guess Naruto . . . but I think that person wants it back now before it gets smashed," Sakura replied with a sweet voice but her eyes said different.

"I'm in deep shit here, huh?" whispered Naruto to himself.

Minato looked confusingly at Sakura, who really meant what she said.

"Okay Sakura . . . even if it is Naruto we're talking about don't you think you could be a little nicer," Gaara put in while Naruto breathed out in relief.

"Like in hell," answered Sakura.

"Gomen nasai, Sakura-chan," Naruto said in his tiny voice and looked at her with big, sparkly, puppy eyes.

Sakura looked like she was going to melt. "Ah . . . I . . . I . . . don't do that!" she finally roared and turned around with a slight blush.

Naruto then loosened his grip on Minato who took a deep breath.

"What's up between you and her?" Minato whispered to Naruto who still hung like a monkey on his back. Minato held his arms so he wouldn't fall.

"It's a long story," answered Naruto without breaking his gaze towards Sakura, in case she changed her mind.

They reached Konoha in the afternoon. Naruto had been riding on Kakashi's back the whole way there. He had not wanted to ride on anyone's back at all, but he was forced to. He had wanted to walk, but Minato, Tsunade, Sakura and Kakashi had said no. So it had ended up with Naruto being carried by Kakashi.

"Finally!" Naruto said loudly when they reached Konoha's gates. "I thought we would have had to travel at least a day more to get here!"

"Oh, you sure have a lot of patience don't you?" teased Sakura while heading towards Konoha's hospital.

Naruto glared at her in response. Then he noticed they were heading towards Konoha's hospital. He quickly tried to get down off of Kakashi.

"I feel fine! I don't want to go to the hospital!" Naruto protested loudly, while he and Kakashi got into a wrestling match.

"It's only to check your condition, it's nothing horrible," Tsunade assured him, but he didn't listen.

"I said I feel fine! Don't you get it!? I don't need to go there!" Naruto roared. His voice was becoming hoarse again. Everyone around him rolled their eyes and sighed.

"Now you really are acting like a three-year-old kid. It isn't enough now that you already look like one," Sakura told Naruto.

Naruto stopped his wrestling match with Kakashi's for a few seconds, but after hearing that statement, he renewed his efforts with even more power and rage.

"I think I need some help here," Kakashi said when Naruto pulled his hair.

"Naruto! Get a hold of yourself!" Tsunade yelled at him, she was already furious. "To act like this is something I won't tolerate!"

"I think he already knows that after all of your fights," said Kakashi under his breath, but Tsunade heard him.

"Hey, watch it! I think you know that I can handle more than one person at the same time!" Tsunade said and Kakashi froze.

Naruto saw his chance and he took it. He hit Kakashi's neck with the side of his hand, making him nearly fall to the ground. Then Naruto jumped down from his back.

"It . . . ai . . ." Kakashi said slowly, rubbing his neck while turning around to catch Naruto.

Minato was smiling at Naruto's antics, but decided to step in now and help Kakashi catch Naruto.

He took a fast step and lifted Naruto up in the air, just as he was about to run away. This surprised Naruto.

"No! Let me down Blondaime!" he screamed as Sakura's eye twitched in anger.

"No I won't. You're going to the hospital, because we need to know how your health is, and it won't take long if you cooperate with us," Minato told Naruto while he was struggling in his arms . . . up side down . . . again.

"No!" Naruto screamed in a hoarse and furious voice.

"Yes you are," Minato said calmly while looking down at Naruto with a soft expression on his face.

"I said 'no'! What part of that don't you people understand?" Naruto screamed again. His face was red from both anger and all blood that had rushed down to it.

"You mean _screamed?_" Minato corrected him."I'm the one _saying _things around here and I'm _saying_ that you're going to the hospital no matter what," he finished firmly.

At this, Naruto became even more furious and was shaking with anger.

Tsunade, Kakashi and Sakura looked at them while the rest of the group went somewhere else. They were sick and tired of Naruto's meaningless screaming. It only gave them headaches.

"I'm not going to a damn hospital!" roared Naruto.

Minato's face became dark and his body stiffened visibly. He shifted Naruto up to look at him in the eye. Even Kakashi and Tsunade went pale out of fear.

"What. Did. You. Say?" Minato asked as his right eye twitched.

Naruto realised what he had done and looked scared at the older blonde who looked back at him with an expression Naruto couldn't read, but he knew it wasn't good.

"Nothing, Hokage-sama," Naruto answered and stopped immediately.

"Nothing you say . . .?" Minato continued with a voice full of venom. It scared all the people around him, especially Naruto.

"Hehe . . ." laughed a nervous Naruto. _It looks like he's going to kill me any second!_

"Behave, and if I hear that word again, it won't be pretty," Minato said and continued to walk towards the hospital. Naruto didn't move a single muscle.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," answered Naruto. He couldn't have been more scared in his life.

Minato held him on his right side while Naruto avoided eye contact.

_I know I crossed the line, but he's not going to use those words anymore. He is after all only a three-year-old for the__ time being__, _Minato thought as he looked at Naruto. He could not see a single expression his crystal blue eyes.

"If you behave at the hospital I'll treat you to some ramen at Ichiraku's," Minato told Naruto smiling at him, as they continued walking.

Naruto turned his head so fast Minato swore he heard a crack, but he was greeted with a smile as wide as his.

"Ramen!?" repeated Naruto. Minato smiled even more, because the boy was now acting as he should. "Miso ramen!?"

"Sure! As much as you want and it's all on me," Minato said, noticing that Tsunade smiled at his behavior towards Naruto.

_He will do anything to gain Naruto's trust,_ she thought.

When they got to the hospital, they ran some tests on Naruto. It turned out that he was healthy and nothing was wrong. Tsunade and Shizune performed the check-up, because they didn't want a 'rumor' going around about Naruto's condition and that Minato – their Fourth Hokage, the Yondaime - was alive . . . at least not yet.

When they were finished, Naruto thought about going to Ichiraku's since Minato had promised him, but Minato was held back by Tsunade.

"Hold on a minute, Minato," she said, as they were about to leave.

Both Naruto and Minato looked at her.

"I don't think it's such a good idea to just walk around Konoha . . . just yet. What if people recognize you?" Tsuande asked.

Naruto's facial expression went from happy to plain, but not as plain as Minato's.

"Well, I wish you would have said that before I promised Naruto we'd go to Ichiraku's." Minato answered in a normal tone, but his eyes said something different.

"I'm really sorry but your presence could cause some problems. They think that you're dead for Kami's sake!" Tsuande said as Minato sighed deeply.

"You'll just have to make an announcement about my return," Minato answered her.

"Yes, I guess I will. But not until tomorrow," she said.

Naruto frowned in disappointment, he wasn't going to Ichiraku and he was _so_ hungry!

_Why does Tsuande-baa-chan always have to be such a mean person? __She's a kill joy__! Yeah sure I know that it's her and Minato's responsibility to do this as Hokage and previous Hokage but still! He promised! But . . . the people in Konoha would probably think that he's either a ghost or an intruder imitating the Yondaime. What she said is true . . . they think he's dead! It would shock them! _thought Naruto disappearing into his own thoughts.

"Duty before joy . . ." he said out loud – without meaning to - but Tsunade and Minato had heard him and looked down at him.

"What did you say Naruto?" asked Tsunade and Naruto looked up at her.

"Duty comes before joy," he said.

Minato looked down at his son with a sad look. _He really is unpredictable . . . sometimes he's really childish while other times he's like the Hokage himself, _Minato thought.

He looked with worry at Naruto's face which was looking at the floor.

_I just want to spend time with my own son. It's the duty of a parent . . . but I can't tell him __about that yet__. He would freak out or something and then __I might not be able to get close to him . . . ever again . . ._he thought, closing his eyes for a second or two.

"Naruto?" He looked up at Minato. "I promise you that we'll go to Ichiraku after that announcement tomorrow, okay?" Minato said with a smile.

Naruto smiled back. "Arigatou!" he chirped, happily.


	6. My new home

**Chapter Six: My New Home**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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* * *

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Naruto headed towards the door so he could go home to his apartment. Kakashi however, stood in front of him, blocking his way. He was sure there was a reason for it, a reason he wouldn't like . . .

"Kakashi-sensei? Why can't I go home?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade, Minato, Sakura and Shizune looked at them.

"Why would I let you go to your apartment when you're looking like that?" Kakashi asked him.

Naruto sighed. "Even though it looks like I am three doesn't mean I am, you know. I'm still fifteen mentally, so I can take care of myself!" Naruto insisted, frustrated.

Minato looked down at Naruto who now had his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well . . . most of the people in Konoha don't know how the situation is, so I don't think you should go out into the village. You live in the centre of Konoha where there are a lot of people," Kakashi explained.

Naruto sighed again with a troubled look on his face. "So what's your point with this?" he asked, trying to stay calm.

"You will just have to live somewhere else," Kakashi answered.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise at this.

_Minato-sama said that I would look like this for some time. __In__ other words, I think I have to relive those thirteen years of my life that I have already lived once, and now Kakashi-sensei is telling me that I have to move. This is just keeps getting better and better, _Naruto thought.

He felt that someone was looking at him.

"Kuso . . ." he said quietly, but Minato heard it and frowned at him.

"Nani?" Minato asked.

Naruto turned around very slowly. "Nothing, Hokage-sama!" Naruto assured him, putting his hand behind his head, with a nervous expression on his face.

_It seems like I have to watch it when he's around, he's got perfect hearing,_ Naruto thought, as he glared at Minato who glared right back.

"Demo . . . Kakashi-sensei . . . where am I supposed to live?" asked Naruto. "It sounds like it will be for some time, so it has to be a normal apartment or a real house . . ."

_I know that . . . _thought Kakashi and frowned. "May I talk to Tsunade and Minato-sensei alone for a moment, please?" he asked.

Sakura, Shizune and Naruto went out of the room.

Both Tsunade and Kakashi were surprised that Naruto obeyed at once, it wasn't like him.

When the door was shut, Kakashi turned around to Minato and Tsunade, who looked at him curiously.

"Well . . . what do you have in mind?" Minato asked as he looked at Kakashi who cleared his throat.

"I have an alternative, but I don't know about who it would involve," he said and Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" asked Minato and Tsunade together.

"Your old house, Minato-sensei," Kakashi said.

Minato looked shocked at his former student. "My house?" he repeated. "Isn't there someone living there? There should be."

"It has been empty since the day Kyūbi attacked . . . and with this you get the chance to know Naruto better," Kakashi explained.

Tsunade nodded in agreement, it was an excellent chance for him. "It sounds like a great idea," she said, but Minato just stood there . . . stiff.

"Are you sure about that?" he finally asked. "I mean . . . why would Naruto want to do that? I know it is my duty as a father but . . . he even came up with the name _Blondaime_!" Minato said and totally lost it. "He's going to murder me!"

Kakashi looked at his sensei and then at Tsunade who smiled a teasing smile at the name 'Blondaime'.

"So what? You're blonde and you're the Yondaime, it was pretty clever of him," laughed Tsunade.

Minato glared at her, but sighed and rubbed his forehead. "But . . . I mean . . . I don't think Naruto want to be with me that much," he said sadly. "I sealed Kyūbi inside him. It's . . . really unbelievable that he hasn't screamed at me yet. He should hate me for what I did. I don't know . . . maybe he already does, and he's hiding it from me . . . to not hurt me . . ."

"Minato . . . he doesn't hate you. That's what's special about Naruto. The people who hate him he treats like any other human. He can't hate . . . okay maybe if he really doesn't like the person, but he gives them a chance," Tsunade said. Minato looked up at her. "Naruto has a very special ability . . . he can become friends with anyone he meets. Even the people he dislikes. And everybody usually change after meeting him. Even if they never have met before, Naruto can change their point of view about things."

Yondaime looked surprised at her. He had seen some things from his son's life, but not enough to know about Naruto very personally.

"But there are a few people Naruto actually does _hate_," Kakashi interjected. "The Akatsuki, Orochimaru and some people he has met. But I know he doesn't hate you. He actually . . . admires you."

Yondaime's eyes widened. His own son admires him? Had he heard that right?

"He looks up to you," Tsunade continued. "He says that if he can surpass the Yondaime he can handle anything _and . . . _become Hokage one day."

Minato smiled. It looks like his son is taking after his mother . . . his mother . . . Kushina!

"Hold on . . . during my time when I saw things from Naruto's life, it seemed like he was an orphan. And he was going to _his_ apartment. What happened to Kushina?" Minato asked, looking at Kakashi, pointedly. "You told me that the birth of Naruto went fine."

Kakashi looked at the floor and sighed. He inhaled deeply.

Minato continued to stare at him the whole time, and his gaze was not something good.

"What happened to her? What happened with his mother and my wife?" asked Minato with a calm but furious voice.

"She didn't survive through the redemption," Kakashi answered. Minato went pale as a corpse.

"She . . ." he couldn't speak. _Kushina . . . no._

"Why didn't you tell me?" Minato asked and it was his turn to look down at the floor.

Tsunade looked worriedly at Minato while he was clenching his fists tighter and harder, and Kakashi looked like he had seen his best friends die – again.

"Minato-sensei . . . I wanted to tell you, I really did but . . . I wanted you to die happy . . . at least with a little bit of happiness . . . If you thought that Kushina-sama was alive then I thought you would die in peace," Kakashi explained.

Minato was now shaking out of anger and rage. "You . . ." Minato started to say, lifting his head a bit.

Tsunade and Kakashi couldn't see his eyes but they heard in his voice that he was really angry. His bangs were covering his eyes and his mouth was like a straight line.

"I'm gonna sodding kill you!" screamed Minato, suddenly launching himself at Kakashi, hitting him so hard that it made him fly through Tsunade's window.

"Kakashi! Minato you have to calm down!" Tsuande roared while Minato jumped out the window and followed Kakashi.

Sakura and Shizune ran into the office and gasped when they saw the broken window and the blood on the floor.

"What happened in here, Tsunade-sama?" asked Sakura in shock. "I heard something going on between Kakashi-sensei and Yondaime-sama . . . then a scream . . . but what happened?"

"Minato's pissed at Kakashi so he hit him. Both are now down on the ground, and it seems like some of the Jounin in the village were nearby and now . . . well . . ." answered Tsunade and hurried to jump out through the window with Shizune and Sakura after her.

"But where is Naruto?" asked Tsunade while they jumped down.

"He ran away to the training fields. We were going to stop him, but he got away when we heard the fight inside your office," Sakura explained.

They landed on the ground next to Minato who now held Kakashi by his collar a few centimetres above the ground. Some Jounin and ANBU were also there and they stared incredulously at the man who looked like their dead Yondaime Hokage.

"What's going on here . . .?"

"Isn't that Yondaime-sama . . .?"

"No it can't be! He's dead. . . ."

Minato ignored the Jounin and ANBU who were talking about him; instead he focused on the man in front of him. Kakashi's hitai-ate had fallen off when Minato hit him, so both of his eyes were visible.

"Why didn't you tell me? What you told me wasn't a good reason and I want to hear a good one," Minato said, tightening the grip on Kakashi's collar even harder.

Naruto had succeeded with his escape from Sakura and Shizune and was now running towards the exit. He had heard the sound of shattered glass and Minato shouting that he was going to kill someone. He had also heard that Minato used a word Naruto wasn't allowed to use and Naruto had snorted at that.

Naruto came out from the Hokage building and noticed a crowd around something he couldn't see. It was some Jounin, ANBU and he could also see Sakura's pink hair.

_How did they come down so fast? _he wondered, and hurried towards the crowd and Sakura, because he wanted to know what had happened.

Tsunade saw Naruto approaching and stiffened.

"Kakashi, Naruto's on his way here," Tsunade said, looking at Minato who finally broke his gaze with Kakashi and looked over at her.

Minato looked away since it was about Naruto. He soon noticed the little blonde running towards them. He sighed and let Kakashi down on the ground. Kakashi rubbed his jaw and then dried the blood away from his mouth.

Minato stepped away from Kakashi and mumbled an apology before Naruto came up.

Naruto recognized some of the Jounin in the crowd: Shikaku Nara - Shikamaru's dad, Choza Akimichi – Choji's dad, Kurenai Yuhi – team leader for team Kurenai a.k.a team eight, Inoichi Yamanaka – Ino's dad and Shibi Aburame – Shino's dad.

Naruto managed to get to Sakura and Shizune who stood next to Tsunade. They looked at Minato and Kakashi, who were still looking at one another.

"What's going on?" asked Naruto in confusion.

"Kakashi-sensei made Yondaime-sama angry, I don't know more," Sakura answered.

Naruto looked worriedly at the two men who continued to stare at each other with both apologising and angry eyes.

Finally Kakashi spoke. "I don't need an apology, what you did was right. I should have told you, I know that now . . ." he said and Minato looked at him at first with a confused gaze which then returned to normal.

"Good," Tsunade said, breathing out. "But just so you know . . . I don't know the word mercy when it comes to you."

Naruto, Sakura, Shizune, Kakashi and Tsunade looked at Minato who had all the Jounin and ANBUs attention, and it was about thirty people.

"Tsunade-sama!" said a Jounin who was Hiashi Hyūga.

"Hai?" Tsunade asked and looked at Hiashi who stepped forward.

"I and the other people here would like to know what is going on. This man here . . ." Hiashi said, gesturing to Minato, " . . . looks very much like our Yondaime Hokage. Can you explain why perhaps?"

"The man that you see here is our Yondaime Hokage," Tsunade said, smiling.

Everyone around her gasped.

"Yondaime-sama?" asked Kurenai and looked surprised at Minato, who looked away from everyone who was staring in disbelief at him.

"Hai," he finally answered and looked at her.

"But you . . ." she began and looked strangely at Minato who once again looked away. "You can't be serious? You got to be an intruder."

"I never died. I was trapped in a . . . parallel universe," Minato explained.

Kakashi and Tsunade knew that he lied but it was a white lie, and they knew the real truth. It wouldn't be so smart to tell everyone yet about the truth.

"You'll see him again tomorrow, but for the moment he has to rest," Tsunade said.

Minato mentally thanked her very, very, very much.

All the ANBU and Jounin looked at Minato when he, Tsunade and Kakashi walked away together with Shizune and Sakura, while Naruto stayed behind. Naruto noticed that even he got some looks and then he slapped himself mentally.

"Henge (Transform),"he said quietly and his whiskers disappeared.

Naruto then started walking in the opposite direction. As he turned right after a house, he suddenly felt two strong arms lifting him up in the air.

"And just where do you think that you're going?" Minato asked, looking at Naruto in his arms who looked back at him, angrily. "And what happened to your whiskers?"

"I used a henge so those Jounin and ANBU would stop looking at me. But what on earth do you think that you're doing . . .?" Naruto asked.

Minato looked at him with a warning glare – so Naruto shut up – and they began to walk back to Tsunade's office. Naruto noticed that he wasn't making a single sound.

"I came back for you. When I saw that you stayed behind I told Tsunade that I would get you and then bring you to her office," Minato explained as he transferred Naruto to his right hip.

Inside Naruto was boiling with rage. He wasn't a three-year-old kid! What the bloody hell does he think he's doing?! But he didn't complain out loud. He had to act like a real three-year-old or else the villagers would suspect something, and somehow . . . ever since the incident – even thought it was only two days ago – he was starting to feel more and more like a kid. He wasn't becoming a little kid but he felt something different, like being scared of something that little children are normally scared of.

"You never let me finish before. I was wondering why you and Kakashi were arguing. What happened between you two?" Naruto asked, noticing that some of the colour from Minato's face disappeared.

"Gomen nasai!" he hurried to say in a high-pitched voice. "I'm not supposed to know!"

Minato smiled at him but said nothing, so Naruto understood that he didn't want to talk about it.

They came to Tsunade's office and stepped in. Everyone looked up when they entered and then closed the door behind them.

"There you are Naruto," Tsunade said sweetly, which gave Naruto Goosebumps.

As Minato put Naruto down, he immediately ran behind his legs and hid, holding onto one leg. Naruto sighed and he knew that this was one of the things that had changed in him since the incident. He was beginning to act like a child would have done.

Minato froze in place where he had let Naruto down. He was leaning forward with his arms out, as if he held a child.

Both Tsunade and Shizune laughed at Minato's face, while Sakura looked with a bone crushing gaze at Naruto, as if to tell him that he was insane doing what he did. It wasn't something you normally did to a Hokage.

Naruto thought that Tsunade was going to kill him, so he was really surprised when she laughed. The fact that he hid behind Minato wasn't something he had planned to do, it just happened fairly naturally.

_What the hell am I doing!? _screamed Naruto inside his head while closing his eyes. _Why am I hiding behind Minato-sama? It's not something a fifteen-year-old boy would do even if I look like three! _

Everyone in the room just looked at them with either a surprised, furious or amused look, while Minato didn't know what to do.

"Well . . . it looks like you're having a good time," Sakura said, as a small blush spread over Naruto's cheeks.

"We don't have time for this now," Tsunade interjected, while putting a bandage over Kakashi head.

"Kakashi, Minato and I have decided where you should live Naruto," Tsunade continued, smiling at Naruto. "It's a really big house . . . three floors . . . in the outskirts of the town . . . where Minato lived before, and you and Minato can live in that house together," she droned on with the sentence and it made Naruto pretty pissed . . . again. "But the question is if it's okay with you . . . Naruto?"

Naruto looked at her bewildered and then he looked up at Minato and frowned. Minato had straightened himself up.

"I'm going to live with Blondaim_e_ in his old house . . .? And for how long has it been empty?" Naruto asked, without breaking his glare at Minato's chin, because he couldn't see his face.

"Yes you can and there hasn't been a single person inside his house since . . . he disappeared. If I were you I would say yes . . . while you can," Tsunade said, looking at Naruto with a knowing glance and a partially clenched fist.

Naruto swallowed and looked down at the floor, blushing again. This time his face practically matched Sakura's hair.

"H . . . hai . . ." stuttered Naruto and Minato breathed out, even though Naruto was threatened to do it.

If it had been the fifteen-year-old Naruto they knew he would probably have protested and screamed, but Naruto didn't want to say anything out loud . . . but secretly he wanted to be with Minato. He didn't know why, but it felt safe and good. He treats him like a human being, with dignity.

"Great! It's decided then," Tsunade said, smiling as if she hadn't threatened Naruto. "You can go there whenever you want to."

"Now?" Minato asked, raising a blonde eyebrow.

"Certainly," Tsunade answered.

Minato smiled. "Are you coming too, Naruto?" he asked as he looked down at the small blonde behind his leg.

"Er . . . maybe," Naruto answered with a playful smile. "But do you have a room that I can sleep in?"

"What do you think? I'm the Hokage . . . er, previous Hokage . . . so there are a lot of rooms in my house," Minato answered, looking amused at Naruto who rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Okay," Naruto said. "But remember that the first thing after Tsunade's announcement is going to Ichiraku's," he reminded Minato.

"Okay . . . but that hasn't anything to do with this . . . " Minato said confused.

Naruto released him but he still stood under his coat. "Well, just so you don't forget," Naruto said and shrugged while smirking.

Tsunade sighed. _Like father, like son . . ._ she thought. _They both loved ramen as much as playing pranks . . ._

Naruto and Minato left Tsunade's office, with a smile on their lips because they had shocked Sakura when she heard that Naruto was going to live with Yondaime Hokage.

Three ANBU followed them to Minato's old house and after that they prepared themselves to guard the house.

"These ANBU . . . do they have to be here?" asked Naruto, irritated because he had never liked ANBU at all, following people here and there, go out on S-class missions . . .

"I am a very important person for the village, right?" Minato said and smiled. "Even if I'm not an active one for the moment."

"Yes, I know Minato-sama, but has baa-chan told them about the current situation about you being back in Konoha? All the villagers, the elders, the shinobi's . . . everyone assumed that you were dead . . . the past fifteen years has changed a lot. Like . . . in the elders council, a lot of people have been replaced, new laws have been decided and replaced others," Naruto said as he walked next to Minato.

A fifteen-year-old boy can say something like that but a three-year-old . . . especially Naruto.

"I know that things have changed a lot and Tsunade-sama has told the ANBU and some Jounin about me being back, or else it would surprise a lot of people if the saw a doppelganger of the Yondaime," explained Minato as he put the key in the keyhole to his house.

Minato had gotten the only key to the house from Tsunade. He and Naruto stepped in, closing the door behind them. There was quite a bit of dust on the floor.

Naruto sneezed and so did Minato.

"This place really needs to be cleant up," Naruto said, as he looked down at the floor and saw . . . well . . . a centimeter thick layer of dust.

"You said it. We should get started immediately," Minato said, locking the door behind him.

"Nani?" Naruto exclaimed when he did so.

"What's wrong? It's 6pm and from what I know, we won't be going anywhere, because Tsunade informed every ANBU that Shizune, Kakashi, Sakura and some Jounin that they weren't allowed to visit us tonight. We are going to clean the house," Minato said with finality. The real reason for locking the door was so Naruto wouldn't escape . . . you never know with him.

"Yeah, yeah . . . to be blonde is really a guarantee for stupidity," Naruto said under his breath.

Minato looked at him. "Watch it kiddo . . . if not . . . it wouldn't surprise me if Gamabunta jumped out from that mouth one beautiful day," he with a warning glance.

"Hey, I'm blonde too so what's the big deal? One idiot times one idiot is I-D-I-O-C-Y," Naruto said, spelling the last word for emphasis.

He passed by Minato to check out the house. "Stupid Blondaime_ . . ._" he mumbled under his breath again.

There was a huge hall which was connected to a smaller hall, where shoes were put. Huge, wide stairs, which was at least five metres wide, went up to the second floor.

"Wow . . ." Naruto said quietly and tried hard to hide his amazement, but Minato had already seen it.

Minato smiled to himself. _To impress him with my house was a good start. But I was more impressed than he is now the first time I saw this, and very surprised when I got to know that I was going to live here, _Minato thought as he followed after Naruto, who left very small footprints on the dusty floor.

"Here, down on the first floor, we have the big hall where you entered at the front door. To the right there is a door. You see it? It's a toilet and to the left in front of that door we have a wardrobe," explained Minato while Naruto listened.

It's good to know where everything is in such a big house like this. Naruto's old apartment was only a kitchen, a little hall, a bathroom and a living room where his bed was.

"You see the openings on each side of the stairs? They lead to two corridors which lead to a bathroom on the right with a bathtub and shower. And on the left side the corridor leads to an office," Minato continued, while pointing at two openings on each side of the stairs. "Then, on the second floor, there's the kitchen, my bedroom, a library and a living room," he went on, as Naruto continued to memorize what Minato was saying. "Finally, on the third floor there's another toilet, your bedroom, an extra bedroom, a wardrobe, my office and another living room."

"Wow, that's a lot of rooms," established Naruto, looking even more impressed.

Minato smiled. "This is what the Hokage gets to live. But there's no time to talk, we have to get going with the cleaning!"

"You're saying that we're supposed to clean up this whole house by ourselves!?" screamed Naruto and Minato chuckled.

"Well . . . before I 'died' I used to have a lot of people helping me, but I didn't like it. I told them that I wanted to clean the house myself. They said that would probably take more chakra than a fight with the whole ANBU squad," Minato explained smiling again, while Naruto frowned in disbelief.

"So what is the point?" asked a curious Naruto.

"My point is that you can use ninjutsu for more than pranks and fights," Minato said, smiling at Naruto who returned it with his 'foxy grin.'

"In that case, count me in," Naruto answered, enthusiastically.


	7. The clean up patrol and the sleepyhead

**Chapter Seven: Clean Up Patrol and the Sleepyhead**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_

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_

Naruto and Minato cleant the first floor for two hours, by that time the clock said 8:05pm Minato had fixed all the clocks so they were now showing the correct time. He also changed all the light bulbs and fixed the electricity. Next, Minato had talked with some of the ANBUs and afterwards, they went to report back to Tsunade.

"Well, the first floor is done," Minato said when they had finished everything. He had just come out of the bathroom, which was now very, very clean. "Oh, I'll need to get us some food, since Tsunade won't do that."

"Yeah, you're right about that, I'm starving and I haven't eaten since that trip back to Konoha. But one thing . . . all these techniques to remove all the dust, clean mirrors and windows and freshen everything up with a lovely scent . . . I didn't know that those kinds of ninjutsu techniques existed," Naruto said with his 'foxy grin.'

"I learnt them from Jiraiya-sensei. He can teach some good stuff you know," Minato answered. "But we should get started with the second floor, don't you think?"

"Since we already have started why stop?" said Naruto and shrugged, evne though he didn't like this cleaning he did it to please Minato.

They took a quick snack and after that they continued.

As they went upstairs to the second floor, Naruto was surprised at how soft the red material on the stairs was.

_Everything seems to be so expensive in this house but still it's pretty normal. Not that luxurious, _thought Naruto when they finally reached the second floor which was dark, dusty and full of cobwebs.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Minato asked, but Naruto stopped him.

"Wait Minato-sama . . . which corridor leads where?" asked Naruto, looking around.

"Oh . . . to the left is a corridor with one door which leads to my bedroom. In that room there's another door, which leads to the library. The corridor to the right leads to an opening in to the kitchen, and if you continue to follow that corridor you'll reach the second kitchen door and the little living room. It just has some chairs and pictures. Some crystal things too, I think . . ." Minato answered while pointing the directions.

"Okay," Naruto said. "Now we can start!"

It took another two hours to finish the second floor. It was 10pm now, and Naruto was really tired after that. He wasn't used to using so much chakra in his new body. Actually, he wasn't used to using chakra at all in this body.

"That . . . was really . . . tiring . . ." Naruto said sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs that were dark brown. They looked like they were made of oak.

"You have done really well," Minato told him, sitting down next to Naruto. "The water should come back on tomorrow, but if you want some right now or before then I can use a jutsu, just so you know. You shouldn't use so much chakra, not in your condition."

When Naruto didn't answer Minato turned his head towards him and saw that he was asleep. Minato smiled and stood up. The Henge Naruto had used on himself had disappeared because he was out of chakra making his whiskers visible once again.

Minato lifted Naruto up and held him in his arms. One of Naruto's arms hung over Minato's shoulder while he carried him.

Minato's bedroom was in red and white, just like his coat with red flames. In the room there was a double bed, two bedside tables with lamps, some pictures on the walls, two swivel armchairs with a matching table and a huge wardrobe, which covered a whole wall.

He put Naruto down on the bed and pulled the quilt over him so he would keep warm. The boy huddled in to a little ball and continued to sleep peacefully.

Minato smiled fondly at him, while brushing a blonde lock of hair from Naruto's face. He then whispered a 'good night.' He lit the lamp in the window and left the room.

Naruto woke up the next day, stretching his arms while yawning. He looked around, a little confused. The last time he had been awake he had been in the kitchen, but now he was in a bedroom which he remembered he had cleant yesterday.

_This is__ probably Minato's room . . . but if I'm in here, __then that__ means that __he must__ have carried me here, _Naruto thought, sighing. _Lately, __it seems__ that I'm __being__ put in situations where Minato-sama's doing something you don't do to a fifteen-year-old," _he thought wryly.

He sat up yawning again.

Naruto looked around again, inspecting the room closer. The doors were closed and when he saw the clock on his . . . er . . . Minato's bedside table he jumped high.

"1pm!" he shouted and stood up on the bed with his hand over his head. "You can't be serious!?" He ran towards one of the doors, passing a mirror. He saw his reflection and froze. He hadn't seen himself in the mirror since the Akatsuki incident.

In front of him stood a short boy with blonde hair and big blue eyes. His hair was spikey like normal except that it was much longer.

Naruto shivered involuntarily . . . he also had a too big black t-shirt and trousers, and he still wasn't wearing shoes, like during the other days.

He looked like he did when he was three... the only difference was his clothes and hair. At first, he didn't say a word when he went out the door, he was too shocked.

Minato was in the kitchen, reading the newspaper while drinking some tea, when he heard Naruto scream.

"Good morning sunshine," he said and smiled.

Naruto looked to his right and then at his left. "A library?" he asked. "But I thought there was supposed to be a corridor here . . . Damn... two doors! Arg! It's just too much!"

He slammed the door shut and opened the other one to Minato's room. He ran to the right and then he came to an opening, which lead to the kitchen.

When Naruto came in, he saw Minato who looked casually at him and then when back to his paper. He wore simple clothes instead of his normal Jounin clothes with the white coat. It was a pair of baggy dark blue trousers and a plain white t-shirt.

"Naze Blondaime? Why didn't you wake me up!?" roared Naruto.

Minato's body stiffened at the loud noise the little blonde made. "I'm not deaf you know," he said, putting his finger in his ear. "At least not yet . . ." he added under his breath.

"Watch it, Blondaime!" Naruto retorted, as he walked to one of the chairs, which was more then twice as high as himself.

He did his best to get up on the chair, while Minato observed his struggle with an amused look on his face. When Naruto got up he glared at Minato angrily, but Minato just smiled.

"Nani?" asked Naruto, crossing his arms.

"To see you with such a morning temper was really something- oh! And by the way . . . I have bought some food for us and it is in the fridge if you want some. We also have water now," Minato told him, going back to drink his tea.

Naruto sighed and jumped down from the chair, landing on the floor with a tiny thud. Minato watched him as he went to the big fridge, noticing that he couldn't reach the handle.

Naruto sighed again, while Minato laughed out loud.

Minato laughed even more when Naruto jumped and tried to reach the handle, but without success. He growled angrily this time as Minato was now laughing hysterically.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

Two clones appeared and hopped up onto Naruto's shoulders. Naruto was now taller with the help of his clones. He could now open the fridge door. The clone at the top took out a milk carton and gave it the clone in the middle who then gave it to the real Naruto. They did the same with the cheese and butter.

When he was finished the clones disappeared and Minato looked impressed at Naruto who now had a thoughtful face.

The boy put the food on the floor and closed the fridge door, which was pretty heavy. He then went to the table and put the food on the chair.

Minato had stopped laughing at this point and watched his son. He had come up with a solution to every problem that he had come across. He was very impressed.

Naruto went to the cupboards and opened a drawer. He crossed his fingers and two clones showed up once again up on his shoulders. The clone at the top started to look in the top drawer, while the other clone began looking in the middle.

The clone at the top found a knife for the butter and the one in the middle found a cheese slicer. They gave the stuff to the real Naruto and once again they disappeared.

Naruto went back to the chair with the knife and the cheese slicer and put them down. After that he went back to the cupboards again. He called on two new clones and they stood next to the kitchen sink on each other's shoulders, looking inside the cupboards. They found a glass which they threw down to the real Naruto on the floor.

Minato gasped and expected a crash, but it never came. Naruto had caught the glass with his tiny hands and went back to the chair again. He held both hands around the glass but he couldn't reach around it.

Naruto put the glass down next to the other things while the two clones who had helped him with the glass, jumped down on the floor and rushed to Naruto. They stood on one another's shoulders again as they reached up to the table with real Naruto on the bottom.

The real Naruto gave the food, the glass, the knife and the cheese slicer to the clone in the middle and it gave it to the clone at the top who put the things on the table. When they were finished, Naruto crawled up onto the to big chair, and when he _stood_ on it he reached the top of the table.

Naruto poured some milk into the glass, holding the milk carton with both hands to do it.

Minato had watched the whole proceedings in silence until now. "I can fix that for you and I'll take down the bread," he said as he stood up.

"Oh, okay," Naruto answered putting down the milk carton on the table. _Being in this small body__ isn't easy when it comes to stuff like this, but I don't want him to help me . . . I'm used to do these things on my own . . . _ he thought.

Minato put down two slices of bread in front of Naruto and then he sat down next to him again.

"Arigato!" Naruto said as he spread butter one of his sandwiches.

When Naruto had eaten his two sandwiches and drank his milk Minato made sure he put the stuff away so Naruto didn't have to do it.

"Shall we clean the third floor now?" Naruto asked as he jumped down from the chair he had stood on.

_I'll have to fix that chair __also__ . . ._Minato thought as he watched Naruto jump off the chair. "Well, after you went to sleep last night, I fixed the third floor myself," Minato informed him, smiling in a teasing way.

Naruto blushed and looked away. "Wait a minute . . . yesterday you said that _my _room was on the third floor. Don't you mean that the room I will sleep in is on the third floor?" asked Naruto following Minato out of the kitchen.

_Shit! _Well, yes . . . I said _your_ room since it is _yours_ from now on," answered Minato in calm voice, without revealing his panicked emotions.

"You're pretty weird, you know that?" Naruto told him.

Minato breathed out mentally. "Whatever, Naru-chan. Here is yourroom," he said, stopping in front of a large dark brown door with a little dark red in it.

Naruto looked at the door and then back at Minato who smiled kindly at him in return. He stood on tiptoes and then had to jump up so he could reach the doorknob.

He came into a bright room where there was a big bed with orange and red pillows on it, along with a red bedspread. There was also a huge wardrobe similar to the one in Minato's room that took up a whole wall, covered with mirrors.

There were also three windows and two doors in the room, and alongside the windows were wine red curtains.

_A lot of red I see, _thought Naruto as he went further in to the room. He didn't notice that Minato had followed him inside.

There were three bookcases with a ton of books on them. They went from floor to ceiling, and they looked like a pillars in the room, because they weren't put against a wall. Naruto moved towards them and read the titles on the books. Genjutsu and ninjutsu books were in two of the bookcases and he assumed that the third was filled with taijutsu books.

_H__e seems to like it. Thank Kami that I spoke to Tsunade __beforehand __about this. He fell asleep so fast that I was able to get the things __done in __here __on__ time, _thought Minato with relief and sat down on the bed.

There were two orange rugs on the floor, a writing desk, three chairs, and a smaller table in the same colour as the door.

"I hope that you'll enjoy to living here," Minato said, waiting for Naruto's reaction.

"It'll do," said Naruto with a smirk.

_It'll do__ . . .__? __I guess his__ humor will always stay the same __whether he's a child or an adult__. After all that Tsunade told me about him last night__ . . .__ it's not surprising __to__ me at all, _thought Minato with an amused smile at the boy.

"I got you some new clothes. They're in the wardrobe if you want to check it out," Minato told Naruto.

Naruto went to the wardrobe and opened it. His jaw dropped to the ground, in surprise.

"_Some _new clothes . . .?" he asked with a high-pitched, tiny voice.

The whole wardrobe was filled with different kinds of clothes: trousers, jeans, t-shirts, tank tops, jumpers, jackets, waistcoats, kimonos . . . it seemed like . . .it wasn't lacking anything!

"And when did you think that I would wear these clothes?" asked Naruto in shock.

_Never_! _Never! Never_ in his entire life had someone bought something for him, well Iruka had bought him ramen and given him his hitai-ate –which he had left at Tsunade's but . . . to actually have possessions . . .of his own.

"It's up to you to decide, but I have to go to Tsunade's office now so she can make that announcement," Minato told him, which made Naruto come back to reality.

"Oh, right! But what should I do while you're there with Tsunade-baa-chan?" asked Naruto in his high-pitched voice, while he closed the doors to the wardrobe.

"I seriously don't know. If you want to, you can just stay here in the house, but if so, then you can't leave it," said Minato standing up.

"Huh . . . whatever . . . I'll stay here then," Naruto answered, looking at him. "I can check out those books."

"Okay, but promise me that you won't leave the house. Don't let anyone in either, got it?" Minato told him in a strict tone.

"Hai, otou-sama," Naruto answered sarcastically.

Minato however, missed the sarcastic tone. _What!? He doesn't know does he? If he did Tsunade would have told me, right?! _he thought as he looked down at Naruto. Then he noticed the sarcasm on his face and breathed out with relief.

_Oh, thank Kami__ . . .__!_ He thought again.

Changing his tone, Minato responded, "Show me some respect will you?"

"Respect? What is respect?" asked a smirking Naruto. "I promise that I won't leave the house or let anyone in, okay?"

"Good, when I'm finished we can go to Ichiraku's," Minato said. He left the room with a smiling boy behind.

Naruto read his ninjutsu books and noticed that there were some really good techniques in them. They could be really useful against high ranked opponents.

" _. . ._Doton: Daijigoku no Jutsu . . . Doton: Yomi no Num . . . Fuusajin . . . Irou Ninjutsu . . ." said Naruto while he read in the book called _A-Z: Ninjutsu_.

"Irou Ninjutsu?" asked Naruto and frowned. "It looks like that technique Kabuto used against me and Tsunade when Jiraiya and I tried to get her come to Konoha so she could be the Fifth Hokage."

"Irou Ninjutsu . . ." Naruto continued. "Has the ability to destroy internal organ, muscles and disrupt blood flow. It is treatable in low risk cases but hard to treat when in critical condition like stopping blood flow to the heart at rapid pace," he finished and put the book in his lap.

He sighed and jumped down from the chair he sat on. He brought the book with him and created three clones which could help him put back the book on the bookcase and of course, it belonged on one of the higher shelves.

After that he changed his clothes to a pair of blue jeans and a big orange jumper with a red spiral on the back, just like he wanted it. He also put on some shoes this time. Then he went to the bookcases again and picked a book about taijutsu and sat down at the table.

Minato had to change to a very elegant kimono which was chalk white and there were lots of red bands and Japanese ideograms that were also in red on the back.

He now stood in Tsunade's office with Tsunade, Shizune and the members of the Elders council.

Minato had to tell them about everything that had happened since the day Kyūbi attacked fifteen years ago. He told them that he had been stuck in Naruto's subconscious but only as a soul. He also told them that Naruto had used his own chakra in a unique way which had released him from Naruto's mind.

"But how can a lone soul live for over fifteen years and then suddenly come back to a living body?" asked one of the council members.

"Honestly I don't know, but I think that it's similar to being resurrected. To live as a soul doesn't mean that you're not a living person," Minato answered, frowning. "But I don't know how I got into this body . . ."

"What do you mean?" asked Tsunade.

"What I'm trying to say is . . ." Minato began, and sighed. "Is that I have no idea how this happened. I lived in Naruto's subconscious for fifteen years and I couldn't do more then walk around in a white environment. During the extraction, Naruto went further in to his mind than ever before and found me. He only saw me as an indistinct, yellow, light creature since that was what I was. But when he used that chakra of his and I was set free somehow."

There were a pregnant minute of silence before Minato spoke again.

"Did you find my body after Kyūbi attack?" Minato suddenly asked, giving the impression to everyone that he was annoyed.

"We never found your body," answered one of the elders in the room. "But we did find your Jounin waistcoat and hitai-ate on the spot where you had used that Jutsu, the _Shiki Fūjin_."

"Okay . . . that explains a little bit more. My body disappeared. Or rather . . . it was captured into Naruto's mind and body," Minato said while scratching his head.

"Well, obviously, something happened, we just don't know what," Shizune said frowning.

"Enough about that," Minato said, rolling his eyes.

"We won't get further then this for now," said Tsunade and straightened herself up in the chair. "We have a more important thing to do, right? The villagers have to know that their Yondaime's back."

"Yes, that's right," said Shizune smiling at Minato and Tsunade.

Minato and Tsunade went out on a huge balcony that showed Konoha and all its inhabitants. Most of them had already gathered below the balcony to hear what Tsunade had to say.

Tsunade spoke for a couple of minutes, followed by enormous roars of joy from Konoha's villagers. Their Yondaime was back.

Yondaime hadn't listened to what Tsunade had said, but he smiled towards the villagers and waved which made the roars even louder. Tsunade then said something that caught his attention.

"A village can't have two active Hokages, so he isn't your Yondaime yet. He won't have all the duties as I have and he won't go on S-class missions, but he has all the rights as a real Hokage," she finished while Minato smiled evilly about new about the duties.

After the announcement was over, they went back to the Hokage building again. When they came to Tsunade's office Minato changed back into his normal Jounin clothes, minus the white coat, which he had left at home.

"You seem to be in a hurry," Tsunade observed and smiled.

"Well I did promise Naruto that we'd go to Ichiraku's, which I still haven't been able to do yet. You remember when I said it to him, right?" answered Minato giving her a wide grin.

"You barely know him, and yet you do everything in your power to get close to him," said Tsunade, sitting back down in her chair behind the desk.

"Well of course! He is my son and I have caused a lot of trouble for him. I don't want him to think that I'm a bad guy, you know?" he explained as he put on his Jounin waistcoat.

Tsunade didn't answer. She just stared after Minato as he went out of the door with the biggest smile on his lips.

_He really loves him, he really do__es__ . . .__ but the question is; does Naruto __love him__ . . .__?_ Tsunade thought and closed her eyes to think about it.

Naruto was still reading his books. He wasn't exactly bored but he wasn't exactly having fun either . . .this wasn't something he normally did: to stay calm and read a book. He normally would have been down at the training fields and practicing on his ninjutsu.

"When will he come back . . ." he sighed as he closed the book which was about genjutsu.

He put it back on the shelf with his clones. He had never been good at genjutsu but he knew how to break free from one. Jiraiya had taught him that on their training together nearly three years ago.

When he had put the book back he went out from the room and down to the big hall on the first floor. There was one table and two brown armchairs, and eh sat down in on of them.

Just a few minutes later, Minato opened the door and stepped in to the house.

Naruto turned his attention to him. "It's about time you got here! It took four hours and I'm starving!" he yelled at Minato who just smiled at him.

"Well, what did you expect, _Naru-chan_?" asked Minato, emphasizing the nickname.

"Don't call me 'Naru-chan,' _Blondaime_!" yelled Naruto again, jumping in the armchair.

"I've decided to call you Naru-chan since it's cute and since you're calling me Blondaime," Minato told him, closing his eyes. "Maybe I'll stop if you stop calling me Blondaime . . ."

"Baka . . ." Naruto whispered under his breath, so Minato wouldn't hear him. Then he suddenly remembered that they were going to Ichiraku's. "Ramen!" he cried, excitedly.

"Like you could ever forget a thing like that, huh?" Minato asked, following Naruto, who had jumped down from the armchair and ran for the door. He had already forgotten that he was mad at Minato because ramen was something he wouldn't miss, and Minato had promised that he was going to treat him, after all.


	8. A nightly adventure

**Chapter Eight: A Nightly Adventure**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

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The next day, Minato was at his new office signing some documents for Tsunade. She had tricked him in regards to his 'duties' as Yondaime. Naruto could have come with him, but he had chosen to stay in the house again, thinking that was the better choice of the options he had been given.

"_Why can't I be outside like other people!?" Naruto had __roared at Minato who just__ sighed._

"_Because you haven't gotten__ used to your new body yet. __You also have__ too much chakra for such a little body, so you have __to work on__ your chakra control before you can do anything__ . . .__strenuous__. I noticed that when we __were cleaning the house__," Minato answered him._

_Naruto __had__protested this__ loud__ly__ for a couple __of minutes__. __He really was__ beginning __to act__ like a three-year-old._

For the last three hours, Naruto had been in the couch . . . in the living room . . . on the first floor . . . and done nothing. He muttered silent curses at Minato.

"Who does he think he is? Sure he's the Hokage, but still, it's not fair!" he complained, laying up side down on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest.

Naruto glanced over at the clock; it was 3:45pm Minato had been gone since noon. What was he going to do? He couldn't go to the training ground; he couldn't be with his friends or even Ero-sennin or Kakashi-sensei.

"Damn you, Blondaime!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He turned around so he was in a sitting position on the couch.

Naruto was hungry so he went to the kitchen and made himself two sandwiches, which he ate fast. It was a pain in the ass to put everything back in its place, if you asked him, but at least he was able to do it thanks to his Shadow Clones.

After his meal he went down to the first floor again and sat down on the couch. He sat there one more hour, and now it was nearly 5pm For Naruto it felt like an eternity. The next thing he knew, he was asleep, and time seemed to speed up . . .

_Naruto__ recognized this place. The water filled paths, the pipes in the ceiling, which led to __Kyūbi__'s cage in his subconscious._

"_Kyūbi__," he called when he came to the huge cage._

_A growl was heard from __within,__ and if it had been the first time he heard that sound he would have turned around and run for his life. But that was a long time ago, things have changed__ . . ._

"_**Well, well, well**__** . . .**__**? What has to cat **__**dragged **__**in? **__**If it isn't Naruto**__**," **__said __Kyūbi__. __His__ red eyes became visible behind the bars. "__**Do you want to borrow my chakra, perhaps? I can't see the reason for it. You're not in a life threatening situation."**_

"_I want to ask you something," Naruto answered, noticing the two eyes. "I'm stuck in this body __but I still have__ all my chakra, and the problem is that it's too much chakra for this tiny body to handle on its own."_

"_**And your point with this is?" **__asked __Kyūbi__, __annoyed. _

"_Do you know how fast I can get used to my chakra in this body?" Naruto asked._

_Kyūbi__'s laughter filled the room and echoed through the walls. "__**You humans are pathetic creatures!"**_

_Naruto didn't say anything. He just looked at Kyūbi with empty eyes and an emotionless face which __reminded Kyūbi__ of the Uchiha clans way of acting._

"_**If you can't handle your own chakra you'll die in a short period of time," **__Kyūbi told him. _

_Naruto sighed while a frown spread over his face. He __had gotten__ a lot of bad __criticism__ from Kyūbi, __but he had also gotten some good advice from him too, so Naruto thought it would be worth the risk to ask him his next question._

"_What do you think that I should to? How am I supposed to use my chakra without tiring myself so fast?" Naruto ventured._

"_**Training. For the moment, I'm still recovering from the earlier incident, so whatever you come up with I won't be able to help you. If you hurt yourself I won't be able to heal you, and if you need my chakra I won't be able **__**to give it,"**__Kyūbi informed Naruto who__ understood that he couldn't help him physically at all, he could only give __him advice__ through their mentally connection._

"_**Your chakra control is pretty low right now, but everything else is like it used to be. Practice the tree climbing and water walking and your chakra control will get better soon. Your **__**body is trying to get used**__** to your chakra," **__Kyūbi finished__._

_Naruto was surprised that he actually helped him when he asked for advice._

"_Thanks," he __said as he turned__ around and walked away._

_The dark paths surrounded him and Kyūbi watched him the whole __time __until he couldn't see him anymore._

Naruto suddenly woke up when he heard the door open and close.

"I'm sorry that I'm late but I had a lot to do," Minato said, seeing that Naruto was lying on the couch. "Have you eaten while I was gone?"

"I can take care of myself," Naruto reminded him. "I'm still fifteen even if I don't look it, you know." He sat up. "What time is it?"

"It's nearly 8pm, why? Are you hungry? What have you eaten?" asked Minato, giving Naruto the distinct impression that he was acting very much like a father would. What Naruto didn't know of course, was that Minato actually was his father.

"Well, I ate two sandwiches at . . . four I think, after that I fell asleep and just woke up when you came in," Naruto answered while rubbing his back since he was a bit stiff after sleeping.

"Is that it?" asked a shocked Minato. _If he won't eat properly,__then__he will be sick and __tire __very __easily __and that won't __be __good for him . . . not in his current condition . . . _

"I have to write some more papers at Tsunade's tomorrow and you will be coming with me, got it?" Minato said firmly, as he headed up the stairs to the kitchen.

"Nani!?" screamed Naruto running after him. "I can be home alone! I'm a pathetic little kid!"

"If I can't trust you to eat properly, then I have to bring you with me to make sure you do," Minato told him, with a hard voice. "You have only eaten two sandwiches in eight hours for crying out loud! You have to remember that you're only a teenager mentally. Your body is still three and it needs food even if you don't want to eat, or else you'll be very sick."

Naruto thought that Minato was acting very much like an over protective father, but the tone in his voice scared him a bit. If it had been Kakashi-sensei or Tsunade who had been screaming at him with that tone, he would have ignored it, but with the Yondaime . . . Naruto couldn't defend himself against his words.

Naruto shut up and followed after Minato without a word. When Minato got angry with him, he didn't know how to react, since he isn't that close to Minato. He had to learn the limits.

He could tell when Minato was joking or if he was a bit annoyed over something, but when he got angry because of worry, it troubled him, and he didn't know what to do.

_Kuso! I crossed the line and now __is he __scared of me . . .?_ thought Minato as he regarded him carefully. On the inside though, he was worried. "I'm just worried about you," he finally said, calmly.

Naruto stopped in his tracks and looked up at him with wide eyes. No one had ever worried about him much before. This was so foreign to him; he didn't know what to think.

"If you don't eat properly, you'll get sick, as I said before, and you may end up at the hospital," Minato continued, stopping as well. "And from what I've seen so far, I don't think that you would like to be in the hospital . . . would you?"

Naruto was stunned. He just looked at Minato with big eyes and a pale face.

_He . . . he's worried for me . . .? He really is? That . . . that can't be right . . .!_ Naruto thought. His eyes looked far away_._

"Come," Minato called to him, waking him up from his thoughts. "Let's have something to eat and after that you can go outside for a while . . . if you want to."

"I can?" Naruto asked, eagerly, starting to walk again.

"For awhile, yes . . . but you have to be home by nine, okay?" Minato told him.

Naruto could hear that he trusted him. "Hai!" he responded, happily skipping to the kitchen.

Naruto headed to the training fields. He had brought a kunai that Minato hadn't seen, wel, at least he hoped not.

When he came to training field number seven, he looked around for a proper tree to train on. He was going to do some tree climbing. He found one he liked, and walked to it.

On the first try, he had only gone about three steps before he had to jump. He made a mark in the tree with his kunai and after that landed on the ground.

_I really need to__work on__my chakra control . . ._ he thought as he tried again.

Naruto hadn't brought a watch with him, so he didn't know what time it was, but the minutes seemed to disappear quickly, and soon a half an hour became a whole hour. He looked up at the sky, which was becoming darker by the minute, and he could already see some stars.

"I'm almost at the top! I can do this!" he said out loud, looking at all the marks he had managed to make during the last hour.

There were markings up to thirty metres from the ground. Naruto had chosen a very high tree with few branches. The first branch was at five metres. He looked up, breathing heavily. He could make it to the top . . . no . . . he _would_ make it to the top! It was barely thirty metres to the top and he had to make it, he just had to.

Naruto started running with the kunai in his hand. He increased his speed, as he gathered chakra to his feet and began to run up the tree as fast as he dared.

_Five metres . . ._

_Twelve metres . . ._

_Eighteen metres . . ._

_Twenty three metres . . ._

_Twenty five metres . . ._

"I have to do this!"

_Twenty eight metres . . ._

_Two__more__metres and I'm at the top!_ Naruto screamed in his head and then . . . he grabbed the top of the tree.

"YES!" he shouted with joy, and smiled his foxy, but exhausted, grin.

_I just have to put the finishing touches to it, but I guess__I'll do__it another day._ _I wonder what time it is?_ he thought as he started to climb down from the tree.

When he had climbed down about twenty three metres, he heard a familiar sound: the sound of a kunai searching for its target.

Naruto hurried to the other side of the tree, using the trunk as a shield. He made it just in time as he heard the loud thud and the trunk splinter under the force of the thrown kunai.

_What the . . ._ thought Naruto in surprise as he jumped down from the tree down to the ground.

Once again he heard the sound of a flying kunai, and this one was heading right for him.

Naruto turned his body quickly, landing with one hand on the ground for support. With one leg, he pushed his body away to avoid the kunai. The kunai landed mere centimetres away from his hand. He ended up about five metres from the spot.

Then Naruto heard two other kunai on their way towards him. He turned around in time to see them. He avoided them by ducking and then crouching with his body low to the ground_. _

_Whoever's out there, sure is persistent,_ he thought. _Well, I have a few surprises of my own!_

Naruto jumped up in the air and made a well known had seal.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

Three clones showed up: one in front of him, one behind him and one next to him. The one behind him soon disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Another kunai had been thrown from a different place.

_It has to be more than one person attacking me,_ thought Naruto, jumping sideways, with his two other clones.

He closed his eyes and listened for any sound, but the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat. He stood still with his eyes closed while the clones looked at the surrounding area . . .

_There!_

Naruto opened his eyes, turned around quickly and crouched again as he sensed three kunai coming towards him again. The clones disappeared as one kunai fell to the ground in front of him. He had his right leg outstretched, so he would be able to push himself away if necessary and be able to jump at the same time. He was completely still; the only thing moving was his eyes.

"Show yourself," Naruto called out, continuing to look around, but he didn't get an answer.

_Who or what are they? Why are they attacking me? Do they know that I'm the host for Kyūbi? Maybe they know that I'm living with Minato-sama,_ thought Naruto, feeling his left leg go numb from sitting on it.

He gathered chakra in his feet and waited for something to happen again, but it didn't.

Naruto, tired of waiting, decided to be the first one to act then. He pulled his right leg to his body and jumped high. He was at least six metres up when he disappeared into thin air.

"Where did he go?" asked one voice to another.

It was a young man's voice, by the sound of it.

"I don't know," answered a second voice, sounding much deeper than the first. "But the kid seems to be pretty good, even though he seems to be no older than four years old."

"You're probably right, but he did use a Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique), that's on a Jounin level," answered the first voice. "Do you think that he's a normal kid?"

"I don't know for sure . . . Kouseki-san just said that we should pick a kid with potential and he had to be blonde, dunno why about the blonde thing though . . . but this boy here . . . he's different. He seems to be better then a normal Gennin, but I doubt that he's even a Academy student," said the second man.

"Don't you think that I know that Kuroi?" retorted the first man, addressing the second by his name. "There is obviously something not normal about that kid. He's barely four and he already knows how to gather chakra in his feet for climbing. He also knows high-level taijutsu, and he even knows how to use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique). How is that possible?" finished the first man.

"That's a good question," Kuroi replied. "Do you think that we should try to get that kid or should we get someone else? I mean . . . there is more than this kid in this town who is blonde, right?"

"I think that Kouseki-san would like to have this boy. He has potential, just like we saw and that's what we're looking for. A kid with potential and he has blonde hair," answered the other man.

"Yeah, but why does he have to have blonde hair? It doesn't matter what hair colour you've got when being a shinobi . . .?" Kuroi thought out loud.

"Yeah, you're right about that . . ."

"Shiroi!" Kuroi screamed his name out in warning.

Naruto had showed up again, because he had finally found where the two men were. His normal blue, gentle, lively eyes were replaced with glowing light blue eyes, which were reflecting danger and rage. With his right hand, he aimed a strong punch at Shiroi, but Kuroi pushed Shiroi to the side and took the hit himself as Naruto felt his hand connect with Kuroi's skull. When Naruto's fist made contact, it resulted in a small earthquake, which also created a huge crater. The grass, the rocks . . . the ground . . . was blown away because of the force of Naruto's blow. The crater grew larger and larger each second, looking like circles in a pond, after a rock had been thrown into it.

The sound this made was terrible, like an explosion, and so loud that it could probably be heard in Konoha.

The dust slowly disappeared, and the only thing left was Naruto in the middle of the crater. He was leaning forward, panting heavily. The only thing left of Kuroi was blood, along with bits and pieces of flesh.

Shiroi looked with horror at Naruto who was shaking and panting. His bangs covered his eyes in such a way that Shiroi couldn't see his face.

_Kuroi . . . naze Kuroi . . .?_ thought Shiroi, shaking out of horror and sadness.

Naruto meantime, was shaking even more than Shiroi and didn't move from his spot. Shiroi couldn't tell if he was shaking out of fear like himself or out of happiness.

_Wh-what . . .? What was that power . . .? Did I . . . did I really ki-kill that man . . .?_ thought Naruto still shaking out of fear . . . fear that he had just killed someone . . . and fear of himself.

Naruto's right arm twitched in pain, and his vision became blurry. The pain that shot through his arm was like a katana piercing through his entire body and soul. He could feel tears forming behind his closed eyes, and he bit his lip in an effort to not cry, but it was in vain . . .

The tears came down, looking like sparkling diamonds, cascading down his cheeks and on to the ground.

Shiroi looked at him with confusion. "What . . . are you . . .?" he stuttered and pointed at Naruto with a shaking and bloody finger.

He was covered in Kuroi's blood since it had been thrown in all directions after Naruto's hit. To see one's friend die like that . . . he wouldn't be same after that sight.

Naruto looked over at the man, and Shiroi could see now that the boy was terrified, both of himself and of what he had done. His face was now dirty, and he had small cuts from stones and bones that had hit him. Blood was streaming down his entire body. His clothes were in shreds. But what caught Shiroi's attention the most was the tear stained face and the big, sad, blue eyes. The tears were streaming down the boys face as if they never would end.

Shiroi could almost feel the pain the boy felt inside himself.

"I-I . . . don't know . . ." whispered Naruto.

Shiroi didn't understand that he was answering his question; he was still too scared to understand.

"You're a monster!" Shiroi suddenly screamed, trying to stand up, while he did his best to crawl as far away from Naruto he could.

Naruto looked in terror at the man who ran for his life . . . away from Naruto . . . away from Kuroi's blood . . . away from the monster.

"_Who is that Mum?" asked a little girl, holding her mother's skirt while pointing at Naruto, who sat__alongside the playground__._

"_Stay away from him, Towi," her__ mom answered__in a both a terrified and hard voice as she picked her daughter up and went away from Naruto__who stared after them__._

_Naruto sat there__all alone__, with sorrow and sadness in his eyes as he saw them walk away. The little girl looked at him over her mother's shoulder with a confused expression, but she decided to do what her mom had told her__: She stayed__away from him._

Naruto remembered that feeling. He was always hated by everyone because he . . . because he was a . . . a monster! A monster that brought shame to the village!

He sat down and held his left arm around his knees and hugged them close to his body. He looked at the remains of the man he had killed so ruthlessly. Why him? Why did he have to be a Jinchūriki ? Why? Because of that he was hated... HATED! Why was he an orphan . . . hated by an entire village . . . unloved . . . alone . . .? He just wanted to live like a normal human, a normal child, with a family who loved him. There was never someone who cared for him like that . . . well . . . there was one person, but he was gone . . . Sarutobi . . . the third Hokage . . . he had made sure that he wasn't completely unloved.

More tears fell to the ground as Naruto was shaking even more then before. He hadn't been able to move his right arm since he killed that man with it.

_Why do they__always __hate me? I'm not Kyūbi . .__ . It's what I've always thought, but maybe it's something else__ . __. . _thought Naruto, wanting to let the darkness console him, but he couldn't; he had promised Minato he'd come home.

Naruto knew he could take care of himself. It was just that, he remembered what he had said to Minato before he left. He didn't want anyone to worry about him.

_That someone does . . . it feels strange. That they care about me.__I know it's up to them to decide, but still, it's so weird,_ he thought as he closed his eyes.

The night had become so dark that Naruto couldn't see himself anymore, but he didn't move. He felt blood streaming down his entire body, his whole right arm was drenched in it. If he couldn't get to a hospital soon he would lose too much blood.

Naruto had no idea what time it was, but it had to be past eleven. He opened his eyes and looked at his left hand, which was very pale. His vision became blurry again.

_I can't fall asleep! I have to stay awake . . . !_ He thought, desperately.

He tried to stand up, but fell to the ground again when he felt the pain in his right arm. The burning feeling his wounds gave was only making it worse. He tried again, and this time, he was able to stand up.

_I have to find Tsunade . . ._ he thought. He started walking slowly away from the place, while holding his right shoulder in his left arm.

It was a 10:15pm and Naruto wasn't back yet. Minato looked worriedly out the window. He had a thoughtful look on his face when he suddenly heard an explosion from the direction of the training grounds.

Minato jumped up from the chair he was sitting in, taking a closer look out the window, towards the training fields.

_No . . . Naruto . . ._ he thought as he bit his lip. _Please don't__tell me that it's you._

He hurried out of the house and as he made his way through the village, he noticed that some ANBU were following him.

"That's as far as you go," said a voice suddenly from in front of Minato.

Minato stopped and saw a man directly in front of him, blocking his way. He was dressed in black and blue, and he had the number forty five tattooed across his throat.

"Get out of my way," Minato told him, in a calm, but firm voice. He stared with rage at the man in front of him.

"I don't think so. We have a job to do and no one is going to interrupt," the man answered him.

Minato regarded him with a gaze colder than ice. "Is that so?" he retorted.

The ANBU who had followed Minato looked the man, ready to fight if necessary.

The man smiled back at him, laughing quietly. Slowly, his laughter became louder and louder until they echoed through the walls.

Minato only looked at him and waited until the man stopped laughing. "Are you going to tell me what this job is?" he asked him without blinking.

"Oh . . . am I supposed to tell you what Tsuwamono's purpose is here in Konoha? Am I going to tell you that we're looking for a child?" muttered the man, smirking at Minato.

_A child__?_ repeated Minato to himself, frowning. "And why would you . . . Tsuwamono . . . need a child from Konoha?"

"Sometimes you need to find new recruits, right?" said the man with his smirk becoming wider. "From what we have seen, it looks like Konoha's a village with lots of potential. You're producing shinobi after shinobi." The man was lying.

Minato didn't say anything, but his eyes became even colder. "And I suppose that you've already found a proper child," he finally said, nodding towards the training grounds where the explosion had been heard.

"It seems so. Kuroi and Shiroi are the ones who were searching those woods," answered the man, smirking again, while looking over at the training grounds.

It had already been half an hour since Minato had heard the explosion, and it seemed that this wasn't going to end anytime soon. He made a familiar sign to the ANBU that were standing behind him and they reacted at once.

Three ANBU disappeared while three other ANBU attacked the man head on, from three different directions at once.

"Pathetic," sighed the man and jumped up in the air four metres above them.

Two ANBU appeared behind him, surprising the man. One of the ANBU took the man's right arm, pinning it behind his back. The man stiffened a bit, but didn't seem to do anything about it.

The other ANBU kicked the man in his stomach with his right leg, causing the man to close his eyes for a moment.

The remaining ANBU appeared down on the ground. Following that everything was swallowed in a thick mist.

Minato ran past the whole fight, only hearing fists connecting with a body. He knew that it was a bit much to use six ANBU for one man, but Minato was desperate, because he knew that this had something to do with Naruto. To keep calm was only something he was good at in normal situations, but when it came to his son . . . to Naruto, he just couldn't relax.

_Naruto . . ._ he thought.

Minato used his Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) to get to the training fields, but when he got there, he saw something that caught his attention. He stopped and looked at a small, bloodied little body, who was leaning against a tree not far away from him.

"NARUTO!"


	9. Asystole

**Chapter Nine: Asystole**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Minato gasped in shock when he saw Naruto who was leaning against a tree. He immediately ran towards him, and knelt down beside him.

"Naruto! Naruto, what has happened!? Where does it hurt?" asked Minato with an uncontrollable panic in his voice.

"Minato . . .?" asked Naruto weakly, looking up at Minato through half closed eyes.

_Naruto__ . . ._thought Minato, looking worriedly at him. _What has happened to you__ . . .__? _He lifted the boy into his arms.

Naruto was shaking. "Aah . . . aah . . ." Naruto cried out in pain when Minato touched his right arm, which was soaked in both dried and fresh blood.

Minato stiffened when he heard Naruto's cry of pain. He hadaccidentally hurt him, when he picked him up. He tried his best to not hurt Naruto further as he laid him against his chest and hugged him tight.

"I have to get you to the hospital at once," Minato told Naruto, who tried to control his shaking voice and body.

" . . . don't . . . like hospitals . . ." complained Naruto, trying hard to stay conscious.

He was exhausted, but now that someone had found him he knew that he had better chance of survival; he also felt that the chance was even better since it was Minato who had found him.

"Naruto you can't fall asleep, do you hear me? You have to stay awake!" Minato commanded, when he saw that Naruto eyes were closing.

"It's . . . hard . . ." Naruto answered, while moving a bit and then making a face because of his right arm.

"Try to not move. I will take you to the hospital right away. I'm sorry that you will have to bare some pain until then, alright?" Minato told him.

Naruto looked up and him and nodded. Minato looked very fuzzy, but Naruto could at least see that it was him.

Minato stood up carefully, holding Naruto on his left side, so his arm wouldn't hurt too much.

"Stay awake," he told Naruto again, as he ran towards Konoha's hospital with help of his Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)_._

"Gomen . . ." Minato heard Naruto say, while closing his eyes. Before the darkness completely took him, he heard Minato curse...

"Kuso!"

Naruto woke up to the sound of beeping, coming from two machines next to him by the bed. He then noticed that he was hooked up to both a heart and brain monitor. Feeling around a bit, he also noticed that he had on an oxygen mask. There was an absence of pain, which he must have given drugs for, but he also couldn't feel some parts of his body either. It was like he was lying on a large ice cube, which was making his body numb.

Naruto noticed that his left side was completely numb. He inwardly sighed. He had never liked hospitals; they were too clean and they smelled funny. He slowly turned his head to the side and looked around with difficulty. His head was pounding like hell, like a hammer hitting him straight in the head. The room was completely in white and there were some flowers in a vase on the bedside table. It was lilies.

_I wonder who brought them, _Naruto thought as he continued to look around.

There was an armchair along with a table beside it and the armchair looked like it had been used a lot.

_Who has been here? I don't know anyone who would sleep in the same room as__me__. I wonder how long I've been out, _he thought, sighing out loud this time.

Naruto suddenly felt a sharp pain in his throat and he began to cough violently. He tried to inhale between the coughs without success. He ripped the oxygen mask from his face with his left hand, turning on his left side because he felt like he was going to throw up any minute.

He continued to cough and cough until he spit out blood all over the floor.

"Damn it . . ." Naruto said in a hoarse whisper after the coughing had stopped.

He was still lying in his left side, breathing with difficulty. His head was on his arm that hung out over the edge of the bed.

Naruto then heard footsteps coming from the other side of the door and soon the door was flung open loudly, causing him to bite his lip because of the sound. It was not what he wanted to hear with such a headache.

Tsunade, Shizune, Kakashi and Minato stood in the doorway. They ran towards him with both relief and concern in their eyes.

Naruto was still breathing with difficulty and wasn't paying much attention. He just closed his eyes and relaxed.

"Are you alright Naruto? Tsunade asked, crouching next to the bed so her face was level with Naruto's.

He was pale and his breathing irregular; blood was still dripping from his mouth as well.

Tsuande looked with worry at his face, while drying the blood away. She lifted his body so he laid on his back in the middle if the bed with his face towards her.

"How . . . long . . . have I . . . been out . . .?" asked Naruto, feeling a fresh coughing fit coming on.

He immediately threw himself over the edge of the bed and spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Shh . . . don't talk Naruto, you won't get better that way. You have been unconscious for almost three days. You won't be getting out of here for awhile . . .at least two weeks," Tsunade told him, with tired eyes.

"You really scared us you know. We had to operate your right arm and after that your heart stopped two times before it took a steady rhythm again," she continued, as her eyes filled with tears.

"Gomen . . ." Naruto responded without coughing this time.

Tsunade removed a lock of hair from his face and smiled. She felt his forehead, establishing that he had a fever. It was certainly over 103 degrees, which wasn't good.

"Get me a towel and some water," Tsunade requested.

Shizune went to get it for her. As she went out through the door, Naruto hadn't noticed that there were more people than just Tsunade in the room.

Naruto looked around and saw Minato, who looked back at him with very concerned and tired eyes. He guessed that it was Minato who had been with him. He sighed and suddenly felt his vision get blurry with sudden darkness that was coming from somewhere to get him. It began to get colder and colder inside him and he filled with panic.

"Tsunade . . ." he half screamed, half whispered with terror in his voice, then the darkness took him.

"He has asystole!" screamed Tsunade, standing up quickly as she put her hands over Naruto's chest, performing CPR.

Minato was stunned. Naruto's heart had stopped beating again? He looked at his son with wide and tear filled eyes.

_You can't die! You can't die Naruto! _he screamed to himself and sat down in the armchair as he buried his face in his hands.

Minato started shaking in fear for Naruto's life. He never shook. It was a sign of weakness, but he didn't care.

_Naruto! _he screamed in his head again when Tsunade couldn't get his pulse back.

Beep . . .

beep . . .

beep . . .

Minato and Tsunade breathed out. His heart was beating again, but they knew they would have to remain close by his side most of the time from now on.

Minato leant backwards in the armchair and closed his eyes. Tsunade heard a light thud when his back connected with the back of the chair and turned towards him.

"He sure is goingto be the death of me . . ." he sighed.

"Take it easy, Minato. He's often put in situations where he gets hurt, but I have to say that he has never gone into asystole before," Tsunade said, crossing her arms. "But we need to know what happened to him. These are serious injuries."

"Yeah . . . I know . . . but how could his arm have got so badly hurt? There were several fractures in his arm and hand, his shoulder was dislocated and . . . well . . . how the bloody hellcan a kid do so much damage to himself!" Minato exclaimed, feeling so close to a breakdown.

"I don't know, but it looked like he made that injury himself," Tsunade answered, which caused Minato to look up in surprise at her. "I guess that he hit something really hard with such power that it broke his wrist and so on . . ."

"But how could he possibly hit so hard that it broke his wrist and dislocated his shoulder?" asked Minato again, sighing. "To hit with such a force, so strong that it breaks bones? Not even Gai can do that. Not on himself at least . . ."

"I don't know Minato. We'll have to wait until Naruto can tell us, I'm sorry," Tsunade said as she sighed and turned to Naruto who was breathing very slowly.

"But for Naruto to hurt himself that much . . . it's not like him and he shouldn't have done it if there wasn't a damn good reason behind it," Tsunade said with a worried and annoyed tone in her voice.

Just as she finished, Shizune entered the room with the towel and the water in a bucket. "What happened here?" she asked, when she saw Minato's, Tsunade's and Kakashi's faces.

She could tell that something really bad had just happened.

"Naruto's heart stopped. He went into asystole," answered Kakashi as he looked at Shizune.

Shizune's eyes widened a bit at this, but she recovered quickly, and put down the bucket with water on the bedside table. She then immersed the towel in the water and put it on Naruto's forehead, which was still really warm. She also put the oxygen mask back over his nose and mouth. Minato watched her during the whole process.

"You should try to relax sensei," Kakashi told Minato as he leant against the wall.

"And how am I supposed to do that when Naruto's in this condition?" asked Minato in a calm voice, but Kakashi could hear that his former sensei was both worried and annoyed.

"Sensei . . . Naruto won't get better if you don't take care of yourself," Kakashi continued, sighing. "And I don't think that Naruto would want you to end up sick because of him. He would hate himself if it happened."

"Why would he hate himself if I'm the one doing this to myself?" asked Minato, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Because _he is_ the reason. When people worry about him, he feels insecure and worried about himself. He's not used to people caring that much about him," Kakashi explained.

Minato sighed again. "Yeah . . . I know. When I sealed Kyūbi into Naruto fifteen years ago, the villagers appearently started to see him as a monster and wouldn't care if he died. But still . . .the villagers shouldn't have been afraid. My intention was for Naruto to be viewed as a hero, who saved the village. Kyūbi's strong, but so is the seal that I placed on Naurto to keep it there."

"That's true," Kakashi said, smiling under his mask, looking over at Naruto on the bed. "However, there is another matter . . ." he started to say, frowning.

Minato and Tsunade turned their attention to him. Kakashi went and shut the door. Minato and Tsunade looked at him curiously.

"Remember what I told you and Jiraiya about Naruto chakra acting different?" Kakashi asked, looking at Tsuande, who nodded in response.

Minato looked at both of them in confusion.

Tsuande explained. "His chakra becomes yellow instead of blue, and his eyes glow blue," Minato listened carefully, since this was the first time he had heard any of this about Naruto.

"When his eyes take on that colour, his chakra changes. I could feel it in the air, and see a change in his behavior. The air was vibrating in the same way as when he uses Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind: Swirling Sphere). . ." Kakashi explained.

Minato was impressed over the news about Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind: Swirling Sphere)."His body was acting in a different way too. It was more agile, and it seemed to adapt itself in a better way for the situation."

"It sounds like it's the same chakra that I use for the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), but it's also different," Minato said, thoughtfully, while looking at the unconscious Naruto.

"Do you think it's the same chakra?" asked Tsunade and Kakashi, as they looked at Minato with surprised expressions.

"I'm not certain, but the way you are describing it makes it sound very similar. He used that same chakra when he freed himself from the Akatsuki's extraction ceremony," Minato answered, sighing deeply.

"He freed _himself_ from Akatsuki?" asked Kakashi in a surprised voice. Minato nodded in response.

"I knew the kid was good, but _that good_? Not even a Jounin would be able to pull that stunt," said Tsunade, looking Naruto again.

"He isn't called Konoha's most unpredictable ninja for nothing," Kakashi said, smiling at the nickname he had given his student.

"You're right about that," answered Tsunade, and looked at Minato who was now looking out the window again. "Minato, what exactly is this chakra you and Naruto have?"

"Well, my chakra becomes yellow when I cross a certain limit. When you use your chakra as much as I do, you actually use it in such a unique way that the chakra's mixture changes," explained Minato. "But I don't know why Naruto's chakra has changed. I'm sure that the chakra's mixture changed but not in the same way mine has, but . . . I have no idea."

"How do you attain this chakra at all?" asked Tsunade, making Minato feel like he was on trial.

"My Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) started from a teleportation jutsu, but I developed it further so it became a high-speed jutsu instead. I can still use my special kunai to teleport to different places, but the technique I used when I teleported has some side effects, so that now I'm really fast and . . . well you get the rest. When I use Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) to run really fast, a very powerful friction is created. That friction separates the molecules in the air around me and the material I'm running on," Minato finished, while continuing to look out the window.

"But how can a frictional drag create molecule fission? A combustion or something similar has to take place if the molecules are supposed to change mixture," said Tsunade in confusion. "It has always been a riddle for us in Konoha how you attained such a high speed."

"Friction is a motion which creates a force, right? That force which has been created, is one of the reasons to why the yellow chakra is created," Minato explained. "The second thing that creates it is the user's chakra reserves. The more chakra the user has, the better his chance is to obtain this speed," Minato answered.

"But the friction should create heat as well. If you use it too much you would get chakra burns," Kakashi said, with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Yes, when you use that much chakra it gets really warm and the user gets burned." Minato confirmed, turning his attention to a young couple on the streets. The girl's hair was what caught his attention, as it was red. "The heat from chakra and a certain friction creates a molecule fission _and_ a new molecule mixture during the time the friction is in motion," finished Minato.

"Have you ever heard the word _genius_ before, sensei?" asked Kakashi, smirking as Minato smiled in return.

"Well anyway, it seems like Naruto has changed the molecule mixture in his chakra," Kakashi said. "But the question is, does he even_ know_ how he used that chakra? He should be since he used it during the extraction, right?"

At the word 'extraction' Minato's face stiffened. Naruto almost had died that day . . . he didn't want to go through that again. He wouldn't have be able stand it, if he had lost him, but Naruto had recovered pretty quickly from it. He sighed and went back to the armchair and sat down while Kakashi and Tsunade looked at him with concern.

"You okay?" asked Tsunade.

"I'll be fine _if _Naruto doesn't do something like this again," he answered, as they both smiled. "As I said before, he's going to make me a dead man."

"Again you mean?" Tsunade said with a playful smirk and Minato shook his head with a grin plastered on his lips.

"Ag-" Minato suddenly stopped as he continued to look at the woman with the red hair.

Red hair . . .

red fur . . .

red chakra.

"I think that Kyūbi has something to do with this," he said and Kakashi and Tsunade paled.

_A__never-ending__cold darkness surrounded Naruto__ . . ._

_He sat in the middle of nothing, hugging his legs and rocking back and forth. He tried to warm himself with his body heat, but it was__proving difficult__._

_Naruto didn't know where he was, but he knew that he was there because his heart had stopped and that frightened him. What if he wouldn't wake up? He can't die . . . he can't die yet! He has to get Sasuke back, and what about his friends? How would they react if he died? One moment he's there and then the next . . ._

"_I don't want to die__ . . .__" he whispered__, as__the words echoed in the darkness._

"_Want to die . . . want to die . . . want to . . . to die . . . die . . ." the words echoed. _

_Naruto felt himself shaking out of fear __and because of the chills that went__down his spine. As he breathed in and out, the air became like white smoke in front of his mouth. _

_He__started thinking__about his life:__as a child all alone__at the playground__ . . .__ when he began the Academy and met some other children__ . . .__ he became a Gennin and was put in Team seven together with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, with their sensei Hatake Kakashi__ . . .__ their first mission outside Konoha was a B-rank mission instead of C-rank__ . . .__ he met Jiraiya and they went out for nearly a three two year long training__ . . .__ Akatsuki took Gaara and how Chiyo gave her life to save Gaara's life__ . . .__ then Akatsuki took him and nearly extracted him__ . . .__ he met Minato and__finally __felt loved__ . . .__the man he killed__not long ago, and__how __he had felt the man's skull crack under his knuckles__ . . .__ it was something he wouldn't forget, never__ . . ._

_Naruto __shivered__when he thought about the last__part. It seemed that it had gotten colder now. How__long had he been there? Was this death? Will he stay here forever?_

_A lot of questions came up in Naruto's mind, just like before when he had left his hitai-ate at Tsunade's office, and there were no answers __then__. He smiled at the irony._

_Whenever he was in a life-threatening situation or in a situation __where he__had to pay attention to reality, he thought about questions and answers__ . . .__ he was strange, that's all. _

_He had asked himself questions during the extraction, but then__Minato had come along__ . . ._

_Naruto __shivered__again because it was getting even colder then before. He looked at his hands__noticing that they were turning blue from the cold__. He was dying__ . . .__ he was going to die, he knew it__ . . .__ this was the end__ . . ._

"_I don't want to die . . ." he whispered again._

_The whispers answered him, echoing in the darkness__. "Die__ . . .__ die__ . . .__ die__ . . .__" they said._

"_No__ . . .__" Naruto said, when the whispers got louder and louder._

"_Die . . . die . . . die . . .! Die . . .! Die! __DIE!" they screamed at him,__as Naruto covered his ears in an effort to block them out._

"_No," he said again, and then the screams got even worse. "No!" He cried out, as the darkness shattered into thousands of pieces, like a broken mirror._

Naruto finally opened his eyes and saw that he still was in the hospital. _I'm__ . . .__ not dead, right?_he thought, as he looked around without moving his body.

There was another person in the room. Naruto looked at the place where he thought he saw a man or woman. He couldn't see clearly yet, but he could make out a blonde mess of hair and a relaxed body, as if it were sleeping.

"Minato . . ." he whispered, cursing at himself because it brought on a coughing fit, which was very loud.

This woke Minato up with a jerk, and seeing that Naruto was awake, he ran towards him.

Naruto had closed his eyes because of the pain in his throat and lungs. He felt Minato hold his hand, giving it a slight squeeze, so that Naruto would know that he was there next to him.

Somehow Naruto felt safe again, and after a minute or so the coughs disappeared and he inhaled deeply.

"How do you feel Naruto? Are you okay?" asked Minato worriedly; as he sat down on the edge of the bed, still holding Naruto's hand.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders as he shook his head because he felt really bad, but he was so happy that he hadn't died. Minato seemed to understand and lifted his other hand to Naruto's face, taking the towel from his forehead. He wasn't as warm as before so he didn't need it anymore.

Naruto stared at Minato, who looked back at him with warm eyes, Naruto felt safer than he ever had before. He felt the warmth from Minato's hand and eyes, and it was more than enough.

"If you want to know, you have been out for two days since your last visit with us," Minato told him.

Naruto smiled weakly at him from under the oxygen mask.

"You should really go back to sleep . . .so . . .I'll just . . ." Minato started to say, standing up, but Naruto held his tiny hand in Minato's tightly, refusing to let it go. He had a pretty strong grip considering his condition.

"Please . . . not yet . . . stay . . ." pleaded Naruto, coughing a little, pulling at Minato's heart strings.

"Okay, I'll stay, but you have to rest, promise?" Minato asked. Naruto gave a weak nod in response.

Minato smiled at his son, feeling sorry about his condition. The feeling Naruto gave him was the feeling a father and a son would normally have in this situation. Even if Naruto didn't know Minato was his father, he was acting like he did.

* * *

---Asystole means that the heart stops.


	10. Silent tears

**Chapter Ten: Silent Tears**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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* * *

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Naruto had been in the hospital for nearly a week now. The pain in his arm still remained. Why hadn't Kyūbi healed him yet? Shouldn't he have recovered from the Akatsuki incident by now?

His friends were only able to visit him sporadically, due to missions they kept getting sent on. When they did visit, they would ask him questions like why he was three years old, why he was in the hospital now, and a lot of other questions only Kami knows what. He couldn't take the pressure, not like this at least.

Tsunade, Kakashi, Shizune, Minato and Jiraiya, were the only ones who would come by quite frequently; it was both annoying and at the same time calming.

"But it's no fun to not have anybody to talk to . . ." complained Naruto, sighing from where he lay in the bed . . . in room 447 . . . at floor four . . . in the west part of Konoha's hospital.

The only thing Tsunade and Shizune did was to give him gross medicines that Minato _insisted_he take or else he wouldn't get out of the hospital anytime soon. Jiraiya and Kakashi weren't doing much either when they were with him; they just talked about what was happening outside the hospital and how worried his friends were over him.

What Naruto found strange was that no one had asked about what had happened to him, except his friends and he couldn't talk about it with them. He knew it was only a matter of time before one of the adults would.

It was night and Naruto couldn't sleep. He looked at the clock, which showed 2am. He hadn't slept a single moment and there was a good reason for it. It was currently thundering and lightening outside, and every time Naruto heard the crash of thunder, it made him jump in fright.

Silent tears were falling from his eyes down his cheeks, which made his eyes red; he was shaking violently. He huddled to a ball under his quilt and shed even more tears than before.

It wasn't the thunder itself that Naruto was afraid of; it was what it reminded him about that scared him. Kyūbi had always tried to break out from his prison inside Naruto and when he tried to do that, Naruto was using his chakra to stop him. In the past when Naruto had used chakra from Kyūbi, he would try to weaken the seal even more than before.

Kyūbi was currently throwing himself against the bars and the sound it made was like the sound the thunder was making outside, only it was happening in his mind. The seal had been weakest when Naruto had the demon fox's cloak, and Kyūbi had thrown himself against the bars so hard that the doors had moved. It scared the bloody hell of out Naruto.

Ever since then, Kyūbi only threw himself against the bars to scare Naruto. Between the thunder outside and the noise Kyūbi was making inside his head was just too much for Naruto to handle. Being in this body shouldn't be affecting him mentally, but it seemed like it was. It felt like Kyūbi was going to break free. He knew that it was impossible if he wasn't using its chakra, but it still scared him.

"Please stop . . ." Naruto begged, as Kyūbi threw himself against the bars again.

"_**Do you really think that I'm going to stop just because you beg me to?"**_asked Kyūbi in the back in his head and Naruto's eyes widened in fear.

Kyūbi was talking to him, which never happened unless Naruto was unconscious!

"How . . . can you be . . . talking to me?" asked Naruto between sobs.

"_**How? You don't need to know because when **__**I break out**__** . . ."**_Kyūbi said, throwing himself against the bars so hard that Naruto screamed into his pillow to stifle it, _**"You'll die!"**_

Naruto cried into the pillow. When he was little and it was thundering, he had heard the sound back then in his head as well, but he didn't know that it was Kyūbi making the sound. But now that he knew what made that sound; he was more scared than he was back then.

"_**Little Naruto is crying, how terrible,"**_Kyūbi taunted him.

He smirked as he showed himself in Naruto's mind.

Naruto's eyes were wide open, but somehow Kyūbi showed himself so that Naruto could see him clearly. That did it for Naruto. He let out a heart-piercing scream that would have been heard in all of Konoha.

Minato had borrowed a room that was just down the hall from Naruto's, so that he could be close to him if anything happened. His room had been converted to look like an office that had a bed, a desk and some chairs.

He had been asleep at the time when he heard the scream: a heart-piercing scream that would trouble anyone who heard it, but for Minato, he knew that scream: it belonged to his son.

_Naruto!_

Minato instantly jumped out of bed, wearing only his striped blue trousers and a white t-shirt, but he didn't care. He ran out of his room and headed towards Naruto room. Along the way, he met Tsunade who happened to be in the hospital at that time.

"Did you hear that scream?" she asked him as they ran in the hall.

"Yes, it's Naruto. Do you think that . . . someone's here to get him?" asked Minato.

Tsunade could hear the worry in his voice regarding his son. "I don't know, but I hope not," she said as they came to Naruto's room.

Minato opened the door and saw an empty bed with blood on it.

"Naruto?" he called, as he went into the room looking around for his son.

Neither Tsunade nor Minato saw Naruto anywhere, but then Minato noticed a blood trail on the floor. It started at the bed and went to the other side of the room. It ended at a dark corner where there was a little table.

"Naruto?" Minato called again.

Tsunade saw the blood trail as well.

Minato followed the trail to the corner, and when he got closer he saw Naruto there hugging his knees and crying. His wounds had opened up somehow. They had healed to the point where they shouldn't have opened up, but they still had.

"Naruto!" Minato exclaimed, in a worried tone.

He knelt down next to the boy, but he didn't dare touch him, fearing he would hurt him.

"What happened? Was there someone here?" asked Minato.

When Naruto didn't answer, Minato hesitantly took him in his arms and carefully hugged him tight.

Realising it was Minato, Naruto cried even more and hugged him back, tightly, as if he would never let go. He just cried and cried, ignoring the pain in his arm.

Minato just held him very close. Someone or something had hurt his son. His son for Kami's sake!

"Shh . . . shh . . ." he tried to comfort Naruto, but Naruto just cried louder, causing Tsunade to start crying herself when she saw the terror in Naruto's face.

It was something she had seen many times on other people, but never on Naruto.

"It's okay Naruto. Da-I'm here," Minato told him. He had nearly said _daddy__, _but he caught himself in time. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you, okay? You're safe now."

Naruto's cries began to slow down a bit. But as his sobs filled the room, Tsunade was now crying herself and Minato didn't know what to do. Something bad must have happened to Naruto for him to act this way. He just wished he knew what . . .

"He won't . . . go away . . ." Naruto finally said, between sobs. Minato hugged him closer, thankful that Naruto had spoken. "He's enjoying this . . ."

"Who's enjoying this?" Minato asked, as he gently stroked the boy's head.

"Kyūbi . . ." whispered Naruto, feeling Minato stiffen as he said it. He looked up at Minato and saw conflicting emotions flicker across his face.

"He's trying to break . . . out . . ." Naruto finished, crying once again, feeling strange comfort in Minato's arms, but not knowing why he cared about him so much.

He then threw his arms around Minato's neck, burying his face in his neck, tears still streaming down his face.

At first, Minato was surprised, but then he quickly recovered, rocking Naruto back and forth feeling him relax in his arms. Tsunade smiled at the sight and dried her tears away.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" asked Minato after a while when he felt that Naruto wasn't shaking anymore.

Naruto didn't answer at first. He wasn't sure if he should tell Minato or not. However, he was the one who had sealed Kyūbi inside him in the first place.

"Kyūbi is scaring me by threatening me . . ." Naruto told him, tightening his grip on Minato. "He's throwing himself against the bars, telling me that the seal is going to break sometime soon . . . and then I'll die . . . and he'll be free . . ." he started to sob again.

_Oh Kami . . . _thought Minato as he rubbed the boy's back. "It won't break, Naruto, I promise you that. I won't let that happen."

Naruto felt enormous gratitude towards Minato. It felt much better getting that out. He had never been able to talk like this to someone before; it felt so good.

"Arigato . . ." Naruto said shyly, causing Minato to smile inside.

It made him happy that his son was glad that he was there to protect him; it was something Minato thought he never would experience.

"I'll always be here for you from now on . . ." he whispered to Naruto, causing him to smile. "For the rest of the night, do you want me to stay with you or do you want to be by yourself?" he asked.

"I want you to be with me," answered Naruto at once. He couldn't believe that he actually said that to the Yondaime!

"Okay, then I will," answered Minato, which surprised Naruto a bit, but he smiled.

"Arigato . . ." Naruto said again, starting to fall asleep in Minato's arms.

Tsunade looked at Minato and smiled as she walked out of the room. Minato smiled back at her. He stood up carefully with Naruto in his arms, and headed towards his room. When they got there Tsunade was inside waiting for them.

"I need to check his wounds, you know," she said. Minato sat down on the bed with Naruto in his arms. Naruto was just happy that Minato was there for him.

The wounds on Naruto's arm had opened, so Tsunade healed them with her medical jutsu. It was only the visible wounds that had reopned themselves, Naruto's shoulder and fractured bones were completely fine. When that was done she bandaged the arm and shoulder and then left them together.

Naruto was soon asleep. The whole night he slept in Minato's arms, feeling safer than ever before.

After another week had passed at the hospital when Naruto was finally able to get out of there and go back to Minato's house. He was so ecstatic about it that he was literally driving Minato nuts. He kept talking about how the hospital was a weird place, it smelled funny, and it was so Boring with a capital B.

"Have you ever heard the words 'calm down'?" asked Minato as they ate breakfast that morning.

"Ca'm do'n?" asked Naruto with his mouth full of bread, then he drank some milk and swallowed. "What do you mean 'calm down?'"

"You've been talking about how bad the hospital was ever since you got out, don't you think you can stop talking about it now?" Minato asked him as he drank from his cup of coffee.

"Well I hate the hospital, and I just wanted to make that clear for you," answered Naruto, while taking a new bowl of cornflakes with some milk.

"I got the message, thanks . . ." Minato sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"What are we going to do today? I have been in this body for two and a half weeks now. I'm getting used to it now, so may I go train now?" Naruto asked with puppy eyes.

"No," answered Minato simply.

Naruto was taken aback by his answer. "Nani?" Naruto replied, looking at him with wide eyes.

"I said 'no', and I think that you know why. What happened the last time you went out? Let's see . . .from what I remember you ended up nearly dying," Minato answered him calmly.

Naruto just stared at him with anger welling up inside him.

"What!?" he finally screamed. "I can train . . ." but Minato cut him off.

"You heard me. Is there something about 'no' that you don't understand? I'm not going to risk you getting hurt like that again. Furthermore, I don't plan on letting you out of my sight for quite a while. End of discussion, Naruto," Minato said with finality, when Naruto tried to protest. His fatherly, protective side was really kicking in.

"Teme . . ." whispered Naruto under his breath and crossed his arms as he leant back in his chair.

Minato had fixed the chair by constructing a built in booster seat that Naruto could sit on, and then put a stepping stool beside it so he could climb up and sit in it himself, much to Naruto's embarrassment.

"I heard that," Minato told him, but Naruto ignored him . . . at first. "And if you continue on like this, you won't have any ramen for a month."

"You can't be serious!? I'm fifteen for crying out loud, have you forgotten?!" Naruto exclaimed angrily._What gives him the right to order me around like he's my father or something? _He thought.

It was both annoying and yet comforting at the same time. He had also noticed that since becoming a three-year-old, his behavior was slowly changing to match his appearance. It was easier to get away with acting childish because of that.

"No, I haven't forgotten, Naruto, but . . ." Minato started to say.

"I can train, damn it!" interrupted Naruto angrily.

This made Minato very annoyed. "That's it, you're grounded until next week," he told Naruto.

Naruto was so shocked that his chair hit the floor with a loud thud.

"What? No fair! I can't be grounded," protested Naruto with a whine frmo the floor.

Minato saw a confused expression across Naruto face, and when he thought about it, Naruto had probably never been grounded before, since he used to live alone, being free to do as he wanted.

"Allow me to spell some rules out for you: One: you shouldn't say such awful words in my presence, actually you shouldn't say them at all. Two: you're going to listen to your elders. Finally: You're living in my house so I make the rules. I said you're grounded, so you are," Minato told him. He looked at Naruto who sat on the floor with a shocked expression on his face.

"You've got to be kidding me," said Naruto after a while. "Seriously, you're kidding right?"

"Do I looking like I'm kidding?" Minato asked with a very serious look on his face.

Naruto gulped. "Fine, but if I follow those rules, I should get a reward," he muttered.

Minato smiled. "If you accept this without complaining, then I could teach you some jutsus," he told him. As expected, Naruto jumped to his feet with a big smile on his face.

"You will?" he asked and looked at Minato with the widest smile he had ever had seen.

"I said that I _could_," Minato corrected. "I can't promise. It all depends on your behavior from now on," he told Naruto, who had a thoughtful look on his face.

_Should I go along with what he says, even though I'm going to be grounded for the next four days? But if I get to learn a new jutsu . . . _Naruto thought.

"We've got a deal," Naruto said finally, smirking at Minato who just laughed at him.

"I'm dying!" screamed Naruto at Minato when they ate dinner the same night. "I can't stand this!"

"Calm down, Naruto. You have been screaming like this all day, even at the office. It's getting on my nerves. If you still want to learn a new jutsu, then you're going to have to start behaving better than this," Minato said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"But I'm going to die of boredom!" Naruto complained as he put a piece of potato in his mouth.

Minato sighed deeply. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Well there is one thing that we do need to talk about . . ." he said, and his eyes became sad and dull. "A very important thing, that I have put off until now."

Naruto looked at Minato with a worried expression and was concerned that he had done something wrong. He knew that he was really acting more and more like a three-year-old; he wasn't only a kid physically; he seemed to be changing mentally as well, even though Minato had said that he wouldn't.

"What is it?" asked Naruto and frowned at Minato's facial expression.

"That night two weeks ago, when those men attacked you . . . I have to know what happened," Minato began, making Naruto feel uncomfortable.

"Why do you ask that now?" asked Naruto, feeling scared about telling Minato he had killed someone. He didn't know how Minato would react to that. "Why didn't you ask me back at the hospital?"

"I couldn't. I felt that you had to get better first before I asked you," answered Minato, feeling sad. "I need to know what happened that night."

Naruto didn't say anything at first, but when he saw Minato's face, he paled and felt a chill down his spine. Minato looked worried and furious.

"Well . . . I . . . two men attacked me when I . . . when I . . ." Naruto paused here. He had a hard time confessing to Minato that he was training, since he had been forbidden to do so. "When I . . . was training . . ." he finished.

Minato sighed and gave him a 'what-did-I-tell-you' look. Naruto swallowed nervously.

"Do you know from which country they came from?" Minato asked him, as Naruto felt tears burning in his eyes, as he thought back.

"I don't know . . ." Naruto answered, unable to stop the tears from escaping down his cheeks. "I didn't see any hitai-ates on them . . . I only saw that they were two men, trying to attacking me . . ."

When Minato saw the tears falling, he stood up and walked over to Naruto who had started crying in earnest, covering his face with his hands.

Minato picked him up and held him. Naruto wasn't as shocked as he had been the first time, but he was still surprised over the way Minato cared so much for him. Minato rubbed Naruto's back while hugging him.

Naruto wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face in Minato's shoulder.

"That's why I didn't ask you back at the hospital. You weren't ready for it yet. I wanted to make sure you had recovered enough to be able to talk about it, not to mention healing from your physical injuries," Minato explained, walking around the house with the crying Naruto in his arms.

Naruto didn't answer at first, but when he did, Minato listened very carefully. "I was training on tree climbing when they suddenly attacked me with kunai. I avoided as many as I could, and when more than one kunai attacked me from different direction I thought that it probably was more then one person attacking me . . ." Naruto explained between sobs, as Minato walked through the living room on the second floor.

"Were you hit?" asked Minato in a soft tone, which Naruto was glad for. It was easier to talk about that way.

"No, but they did hit one of my bunshins' . . ." he answered, as Minato continued to rub his back. He sighed and closed his eyes.

"You could create one?" asked Minato again with the same soft voice.

"Yeah, but it was hard . . . it took so much of my chakra . . ." answered Naruto feeling Minato's body stiffen a bit. "It went fine but I only used three at the time . . ."

Minato didn't answer and Naruto understood that he was waiting until he wanted to tell him more and he was grateful for that. They went through the library and came to Minato's room.

Minato then sat down on the bed leaning against the headrest. He laid Naruto against his chest to use like a pillow.

"When they stopped attack I waited . . . but nothing happened, and after that . . .it turned really scary . . ." Naruto finished, hugging Minato tight as he stroked his head.

_What happened Naruto? _thought Minato, feeling very worried about his son, but he didn't want to press the matter further at this point, because it seemed so troubling to Naruto.

"I still don't know exactly what happened . . ." whispered Naruto, sounding as if he had never experienced anything more horrible, so that Minato was now both worried and scared himself.

"I felt their chakra and then I disappeared . . . I don't know how I did it . . ." he continued to whisper, as Minato held him closer because he was shaking. He grabbed the bedspread and covered Naruto with it.

"You've done really well to talk about this," Minato told him as he laid his head on top of Naruto's while closing his eyes for a moment.

Naruto huddled closer to Minato and shed silent tears. They stayed in that position for a long time and neither of them cared about the dinner getting cold.

"You can tell me the rest later . . ." Minato finally said, but noticed that Naruto had fallen asleep, with tears still falling down his cheeks, so Minato knew that night's events were haunting him even in his dreams. He cursed himself.

Minato couldn't stop nightmares. No one can stop a nightmare. He whispered comforting words to Naruto and tried his best to protect the child in his arms who was trembling out of fear from the memories.

"It's okay Naruto . . . it's no one here to hurt you . . . no one is here to scare you . . ." whispered Minato and hugged his son closer. "It's nothing to be afraid of . . . it's nothing . . ."

_Naruto saw the dead man in front of him. The man who he had literally demolished! The man whose body was ripped into nothing but bits and pieces!_

_Naruto was afraid. He couldn't run from it, couldn't hide from it . . . this was something that would haunt him in his dreams forever . . . he couldn't escape from this! He had killed a man and turned him into nothing! __He couldn't live with that! How could he live with such a . . . murder on his mind! _

" _. . .it's nothing to be afraid of . . ." said a voice that Naruto recognized as Minato's voice._

"_Minato-sama . . ." he said and dried away the tears from his face. "MINATO!" he screamed a moment later._

_He could hear Minato's words. He was trying to console him. Naruto ran towards Minato's voice, __which seemed very__ far away, but Naruto didn't care, he had to get there._

"_Minato!" he cried and r__a__n faster, but the faster he ran the more pictures of the dead man he saw. _

_He also saw the other man's horrified face when he had called him a monster. He had to get out of there! He didn't want to remember, to see . . ._

"_Tou-san!" he screamed without knowing what he screamed._

"Tou-san!" screamed Naruto and woke up with a surprised Minato in front of him.

Minato was pale and looked in shock at him. Naruto didn't care what he had screamed he just cried. Cried his heart out. He threw himself at Minato and hugged him close as he sobbed loudly.

Minato didn't know what to think, so he just hugged Naruto back and his thoughts were blank. He couldn't think, couldn't breath, couldn't speak, but he could console. When he recovered a bit from his shock, he hugged Naruto really tight and covered himself and Naruto with the bedspread.

Naruto was still crying and Minato was both confused and happy that Naruto had called him tou-san even though he knew that it was an accident, he was still happy.

They both fell asleep soon, even though it was only six in the evening. But they slept through the whole night and Naruto wasn't dreaming about that incident anymore, he was dreaming about a family.


	11. A peony

**Chapter Eleven: A Peony**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Naruto woke up early the next morning. It was still dark outside and it was probably only three or four in the morning. He laid on something hard and soft and then remembered that he had fallen asleep in Minato's arms, talking about that disturbing night he had a couple weeks back. He really hadn't wanted to talk about it at all, but he knew he would have had to eventually. He had wanted to tell Minato everything that happened, but it was just too hard.

Naruto turned his head to the other side and moaned when he felt pain in his back. Lying on his stomach the whole night, made his back protest his movement. In an effort to keep warm, he huddled closer to Minato, who felt his movement and woke up.

"Oh, you're awake . . ." said a tired Minato and smiled at Naruto as he brought the bedspread closer to them both. "Are you hungry?"

Naruto was glad that he didn't ask further about 'that night' so he smiled. He wasn't hungry, just tired. He suddenly remembered what he had called Minato the night before.

"I'm sorry about last night," Naruto said into Minato's shirt without looking up at him.

Minato frowned. "What are you apologising for? Nothing happened last night," Minato said, looking at him in confusion. "If you're worried about what you told me about what happened that night . . .it's nothing to apologise for."

"No . . .it's not that. It's that I . . . I called you . . . Tou-san," Naruto told him quietly, blushing.

Minato smiled at him as he ruffled his hair, so it became even messier than before.

"Hey, it could have happened to anyone, and I don't mind. I guess now that we're getting used to each other, feelings are created," Minato reassured him.

Naruto blushed even more but Minato didn't notice.

"But I'm still sorry. You're the Yondaime, I'm not supposed to treat you like I do," Naruto explained. Minato could hear that he was blaming himself.

"Calm down Naruto. I choose who I want to be with and I've chosen to be with you. It's normal to grow fond of each other, especially since we're spending so much time together," Minato told him.

Naruto looked up at his face and saw Minato smiling at him. Naruto blushed again, his face becoming redder than Gaara's hair. This time Minato noticed.

"Are you sure that you're okay, Naruto? It's looks like you have a fever," Minato said as he felt Naruto's forehead with his hand. "You're so red . . ."

At that comment Naruto buried himself under the bedspread, embarrassed.

"I'm fine!" Naruto assured Minato as he tried to get away from him as fast as possible.

"Hey! Come back!" Minato called when Naruto crawled like a mouse under the bedspread.

"No!" Naruto answered.

He crawled too far and fell over the edge of the bed, bringing the bedspread with him in the fall. He lay on the floor seeing stars. Then he saw Minato's blonde head looking down at him.

"You okay?" asked Minato and couldn't help but smile.

"What does it looks like?" moaned Naruto from the floor, lying on his already hurting back.

"Come on," said Minato, offering his hand to help him up.

Naruto took the offered hand, but Minato was in a teasing mood.

When he Naruto grabbed his hand, he lifted Naruto up in the air and turned him up side down, just like he had done their first night together.

"What the . . ." Naruto protested as Minato lifted him up. "You-"

"Aah, aah . . ." Minato chided him mildly, waving a finger in his face. "You're already grounded and I don't think that you want me to extend that time, hmm?" Minato asked, smirking at Naruto who looked tiredly back at him. He didn't know why he was so tired but he wanted to sleep and he wanted to sleep _now_.

"I wanna go back to bed, it's still dark outside," Naruto complained.

Minato was shocked that Naruto didn't fight back.

_Hmm, we both went to bed early and slept for ten hours . . . should he still be this tired__?_ Minato thought, but then he remembered that Naruto was in a three-year-old body, so it was just normal that he was tired. A teenager usually sleeps for eight hours or less while little kids sleep for twelve or fifteen hours per day.

Naruto's eyes were about to close when Minato turned Naruto right side up again.

"You know, you're acting more and more like a real three-year-old," Minato told him as he laid him down on the bed in front of him.

"Yeah, thanks to you . . ." a sleepy Naruto responded, yawning widely. "You . . . said that . . . I . . . would look . . . like a little kid . . . not act like one . . ." he finished yawing between each phrase.

"I guess I was wrong," said Minato, shrugging. "For each day that passes, it seems that you're becoming more and more like a little kid. More food, more sleep and a changing personality . . . but at least you still remember how to talk and use chakra so you're not completely like a real three-year-old."

"Thank Kami . . ." said Naruto under his breath, closing his eyes.

"It's probably the best thing for you to get plenty of sleep in this little body," Minato told him as he lay down beside him. "Otherwise you might . . ."

"I know, get sick . . ." answered Naruto, sighing as he smiled.

"Well, you get that part at least," said Minato, looking down at Naruto who had opened his eyes again. He seemed to be looking at something very far away.

"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Minato, concerned.

Naruto looked up into his eyes. "Whaddya mean?" he asked.

"Since yesterday? Remembering what happened that night woke memories that should have been forgotten, right?" Minato asked, trying to not push Naruto.

"Yeah . . ." whispered Naruto, looking away from Minato's eyes even though they were soft.

"You don't have to talk about it now, if you don't want to. You're tired, so go to sleep now," Minato told him, ruffling Naruto's hair again. "It's good to sleep."

Naruto didn't answer. Instead he rolled his eyes and he sat up, looking at Minato.

Minato didn't know what Naruto was thinking, but when he stood up and went over to him, Minato looked at him with confusion. Naruto wordlessly lay down on Minato's chest like he had done during the night. It was embarrassing, but comforting at the same time. This helped with . . .the nightmares.

At first, Minato was surprised, but then he understood that Naruto felt safer this way: safer from the nightmares that could come. Minato covered Naruto with the bedspread and soon he was asleep again.

Minato looked out the window and thought about what Naruto had told him so far. Two men had attacked him. According to the man Minato spoke with that night, two men had been at the training grounds at the same time, so Naruto had spoken the truth.

Naruto had also said that he was able to create three _Kage Bunshin_ and that really surprised Minato. He really had a lot of stamina and huge chakra reserves. The men had only thrown kunai at him, and when nothing happened Naruto had decided to act first.

"_After that, __things began to get scary__ . . ." _was what Naruto had said.

Minato looked down at Naruto and saw that he wasn't having any nightmares. He sighed in relief. So far, Naruto was okay. He looked back out the window again, in deep thoughts.

"What do you think?" asked a woman.

Hundreds of people were gathered inside a huge castle. Ten of them sat on ten different chairs in one part of a big hall. Everyone was looking at them.

"I think, Kouseki-sama, that this child may be just what we need," said a man's voice that belonged to Shiroi who had tried to attack Naruto not too long ago.

"And you say that he's only three? I trust that you're correct in your assessment of the boy," answered Kouseki-sama but she held a knowing smile on her face.

She knew what child the man was talking about, she knew that they had found the right child immediately and she knew that the child was the son of Namikaze Minato, the host of the nine-tailed fox.

She was dressed in a purple cloak, with a hood over her head, covering her face.

"He is very promising Kouseki-sama. We should choose him," said Shiroi, who wore a brown cloak over his clothes.

"You and five other men will bring me that child," Kouseki-san told him with a firm tone in her voice.

"Hai Kouseki-sama!" Shiroi answered and turned to leave.

"And don't end up like Kuroi," warned Kouseki-sama.

Her voice was full of rage and malicious pleasure. Shiroi knew that she didn't care if he died; she just wanted the child.

Later that same morning, Minato had gone to see Tsunade and left Naruto at his house with Yamato, Kakashi and three more ANBU to guard him. He would never forgive himself if something happened to Naruto. Though he knew Naruto probably wouldn't be too happy about it when he found out.

"Tsunade-sama," Minato said as he entered her office after a knock on the door. "Have you gotten anything vital out of the intruder yet?"

Tsunade looked up at a serious Minato and shook her head.

"Not much. So far we know that the organisation he's from is called Tsuwamono and that they are after a child from Konoha. We haven't been able to get anything else from him after you talked with him that night," answered Tsunade and sighed. "Ibiki Morino is questioning him for the moment."

"Okay, but do we know his name? Abilities?" asked Minato, feeling really annoyed that he couldn't get anything out of that guy.

"He calls himself Onkyou-kun. He got that name because he is incredible when it comes to using sound of any kind," Tsunade answered and this time Minato sighed.

"We're getting nowhere near our expectations with that information. We have to get something more out of him. Why do they want a child when they can choose a missing-nin or a Jounin?" Minato asked, still very annoyed.

"We don't know why they want a child. You said earlier that they were looking for new recruits, right? They also said that Konoha's producing shinobi after shinobi. But you also said that it looked like he was lying," said Tsunade with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Obviously they wanted Naruto," Minato answered.

He felt scared that he might lose his only son.

"They won't get to Naruto that easily. He's a hard fighter with stamina and self-confidence. He knows when people are after him for a bad reason," Tsunade reminded him as Minato rolled his eyes.

"I know but from what you have told me about him . . . Naruto's still nourishes the fond hope that Sasuke will come back to him and Konoha . . . and that makes him careless and easier to get to," Minato told her.

Tsunade regarded him without emotion. "Then talk to him. Say that you think that _bad people_ are after him," she replied in a mocking tone.

"He's irresponsible at times, but not stupid," Minato retorted, realising that Tsunade had drunk more than one bottle of sake. "I'll be back when your hang over is gone," he finished, leaving the office with a sigh.

Naruto had finally woken up. He rubbed his eyes, stretched and looked around. The first thing he noticed was that he was in his own bed now, not Minato's. The second thing he noticed was that there were two men in the room with him.

"Hey! Who are you?" Naruto called out. The men turned around so Naruto could see their faces. "Kakashi-sensei? Captain Yamato?" he asked, surprised. "Why are you here and where is Minato?"

"Good morning Naruto, I hope that you've slept well, since it's nearly noon," Kakashi replied, smiling under his black mask. "Minato-sensei went to Tsunade's to discuss some things. We're here under his orders to watch over you."

Naruto glared at them in response. They. Were. His. Baby-sitters?

"How many times do I have to tell you people? I'm fifteen for crying out loud!" Naruto said loudly. Kakashi and Yamato felt the air become a bit colder. "I don't need people watching me all the time."

"Last time you were alone you ended up in the hospital for two whole weeks, Naruto. Don't you think that you need _protection_? We don't want you to hurt yourself again," Yamato answered, saying the magic word.

"Peotection!? You're the one who's going to need some damn protection when I get to you!" screamed Naruto, standing up in his bed, whileYamato sighed.

"Just because Minato-sensei is not here doesn't mean that his rules don't still apply, Naruto," sighed Kakashi. Naruto stiffened when he heard _rules _and _Minato_ in the same sentence. "Did you really think that he would leave you all by yourself? You nearly died last time."

"I know, but why does everyone have to keep reminding me about that? I know what happened and it won't happen again," Naruto answered in a quiet voice. Kakashi could tell that he was a bit scared.

"You can't leave the house if Minato's not here, okay? Kakashi and I, along with three other ANBU, are here to protect the house and you. Kakashi and I are stationed in the house and the other three ANBU are outside," Yamato explained.

Naruto huffed angrily. "I don't want to be protected!" he shouted as he jumped down from the bed, which was as tall as him.

"You don't have a choice, Naruto," Kakashi told him firmly, fixing him with a hard gaze. He wasn't someone Naruto could argue with.

"Fine, but I'm hungry, so if you don't mind I'll go get some food," Naruto answered, walking to the door.

He jumped up to reach the doorknob and went out through the door with Kakashi and Yamato following closing behind him.

"There he is," said one of the ANBU who was outside, guarding the house. "Why do we have to watch over him anyway?"

"He's important to the Yondaime, and it's an order from both Yondaime and Godaime," answered another ANBU. "We don't disobey the Godaime's orders and . . ."

The first ANBU who had spoken knocked the other ANBU unconscious.

"Hey . . .!" began the third ANBU, but getting his head cut off silenced him.

"This was way to easy . . . and now for the kid," said the first ANBU who obviously wasn't a Konoha ANBU, but an intruder.

Naruto was alone in the kitchen, eating his food, while Kakashi was positioned just outside the kitchen. Yamato was in the living room.

Naruto was still pissed about this whole new arrangement. At least he had convinced Kakashi to let him eat by himself. He didn't like all this protection. He had always taken care of himself in the past, even when the Akatsuki were after him; no one made the ANBU guard him. This was really to going too far. If he only knew Minato's reason for the protection . . .

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto called out, suddenly. His voice was a bit shaky and Kakashi felt that something nwas wrong.

"Yes, Naruto?" answered Kakashi, coming into the kitchen. Presently, he stopped in his tracks.

A headless ANBU hung outside the window. His head was tied to his belt with his own hair. Kakashi recognized the ANBU's mask as Falcon's.

"Oh Kami . . . don't look Naruto," Kakashi said, as he stepped forward to cover Naruto's eyes.

"What's going on, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto in a frightened tone.

Even though Naruto was a fifteen year-old shinobi, he still struggled with acting like a three-year-old, so this scared the bloody hell out of him.

"Yamato!" shouted Kakashi and Yamato quickly entered the room and noticed the headless ANBU outside the window. "You didn't notice someone's chakra, did you?" Kakashi asked.

"I've only felt the three ANBU chakra, nothing more. But how could this have happened?" he asked as he looked around for something out of place. "Someone has been here that's not supposed to be here. We have to tell Minato-sama immediately," Yamato said, disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving Kakashi with Naruto.

_Have they come for me, again? _thought Naruto, shaking.

Kakashi felt it. "It's going to be alright, Naruto. Nothing is going to happen to you. Just let us deal with this," Kakashi told him, looking down at his student.

He didn't look like the Naruto he was used to. This kid was scared while the Naruto he knew would have been excited

Kakashi was surprised that whoever this was, had made their first move in the middle of the day. If they had been smart, they would have waited until night. It was Naruto's turn to feel Kakashi stiffen.

"What's wrong Kakashi-sensei?" he asked, while removing Kakashi's hands away from his eyes. He looked up at the grey-haired Jounin in front of him.

"Nothing, really. I'm just surprised that they attacked in broad daylight," answered Kakashi. Then Naruto understood. It was really strange. "But don't worry about that, Yamato is getting Minato-sensei and some more ANBU."

Naruto didn't answer. He looked over at the ANBU who was now dead. What scared him the most was that the ANBU had died because he was protecting him.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" asked an angry male's voice. "You just killed an ANBU and now you have screwed up the whole plan for getting the kid!"

"No, I didn't. I just left them a gift. We've just . . . made the game more interesting . . ."

Minato and seven ANBU arrived at the house, as fast as they could. He then hurried to Naruto who was still with Kakashi, in the kitchen.

"What happened?" asked Minato, trying not to sound worried over his son, but the fact was, he was more worried over the current situation and the dead ANBU Falcon. "Yamato didn't tell me much."

"An intruder has come to Konoha. Whoever it was, killed Falcon and after that nothing more happened Minato-sensei," Kakashi explained calmly. "Do you think it's _them_?"

"Probably . . ." sighed Minato as he pushed back his hair back form his eyes. "Naruto, could we talk?" he asked, looking down at Naruto who looked back up at him in confusion.

"Er . . . okay," Naruto answered. He headed to the library, which wasn't that far away from the kitchen. "What is this about?" he asked once they were inside.

"This is probably a person from an organisation that sent people to attack you that night. We don't know much about them but we're trying to get more, " explained Minato as he tried to not look away from Naruto scared eyes.

"You want me to tell you what happened?" asked Naruto, breaking their gaze.

"I wish I didn't have to, but . . ." began Minato turning to look out the window. "We really have to know, because they are after you, Naruto."

"Well . . . I already told you that they were attacking me with kunai. After I dodged their attack, I finally managed to find where they were hiding. After that I . . . well I . . . don't really know what happened . . . except that . . .I used the same chakra . . . as during the extraction," Naruto explained, stammering.

"Do you know what you did?" Minato asked in a soft voice as he did before.

_I . . .I can't tell him that I killed that man! I can't tell him! _"I'm not sure . . . but . . ." Naruto began, trying to come up with a good lie, "Um . . ." he sighed.

"Naruto," Minato began, kneeling down to Naruto's level. "I know that . . . at least one man died that night. The crater and the body parts were discovered there . . . Just tell me what happened," Minato coaxed him gently, placing his hands on Naruto's shoulders.

Naruto paled. _He knows_. "I . . .I . . . killed that man, whose body was demolished . . ." Naruto answered. His hair was covering his eyes.

Minato looked with worry at him. "Demolished . . .?" he repeated.

"I don't how it happened I just know that it _did_ happen. I used that chakra and when I punched him in the head he . . . he just . . .blew up," Naruto explained.

Minato turned pale. "He blew up . . .? I'm sure it was an accident, right?" he asked.

Naruto nodded, looking at the man in front of him. What Minato saw shocked him: Naruto was smiling at him.

"I'm happy that I've said it now!" he told Minato who was taken aback by his answer and his smile, so he didn't know what to say.

"Er . . ."

"I'm just glad that you're not as mad as I thought you would be!" continued Naruto who was acting more like himself. "'Cause I thought that you would be really angry with me for what I did!"

"Well . . . I am glad that you told me, since you needed to get that off your chest . . .but your attitude about all of this troubles me. I mean you did . . . kill that man . . ." Minato finally said.

Naruto blinked a few times and went silent. He's screwed now. Even though Minato's acting all nice, he knew that they'll talk more later, and that he wouldn't like it much. He just smiled at Minato again.

"I know, but I just feel like smiling now when I've said it! I've never had anyone that I could tell thing like this before," Naruto finally said.

Minato sighed. Naruto was just smiling to keep his real feelings hidden from Minato and that was something he didn't like. He would have to talk to Naruto about that later.

"I need to go talk with the ANBU that will be guarding the house from now on," Minato told Naruto, as he stood up and rubbed his temple. "Just stay in here for a while, got it? Tell someone where you're going if you want to go somewhere else."

"Okay," Naruto said as he watched Minato head back to the kitchen.

The library was so quiet: too quiet in his mind. He walked over to the window and looked outside.

"This is so boring! I want to be outside," Naruto said, when he saw how beautiful it was outside. "Just for a moment. I'll be back before anyone finds out!"

With that, he leapt out the window.

"Did he tell you anything?" Yamato asked Minato when he entered the room again.

"He did actually," Minato answered as he smiled.

Yamato looked at him with a hint of shock in his eyes, Naruto had really told him?

"Well, that's great. Do you think that they are after him again then? That those who attacked us this time are the same as the ones who attacked the last time?" asked Yamato.

Minato had a thoughtful look on his face. "Definitely, it's them. They are from the same organisation at least," he said, his smile disappearing as fast as it had shown up. "And they are after Naruto. I'm sure of it."

"We will have to protect him even more then," Kakashi said, who had been listening to their conversation. "He won't like it, but it is necessary."

"Yeah . . . I guess," Yamato replied.

He sighed as he thought about Naruto's reaction to the news. His last one hadn't been a pleasure.

"Let's say it at once and be done with it . . . where is Naruto?" asked Kakashi looking around for Naruto, but not seeing the short blonde anywhere. "Naruto!" he called.

No answer. _Where the bloody hell is he now_? asked Kakashi himself, scratching his head. "He was just with you sensei a moment ago, right?"

Minato sighed. Naruto was gone . . . again! Boy, was he in for it this time!

"He's grounded so he's not supposed to go out. Ask an ANBU if Naruto told them where he went," Minato answered closing his eyes for a moment._ Either grey-haired before I'm forty or dead before this year is over, that's his goal . . . _ he thought.

"He went out to the garden. That's what Bear told me," Kakashi reported, as he came back to Minato a few minutes later.

"Okay, thanks," Minato said. He went down to the first floor and out to the garden. "Naruto!" he shouted.

He heard a rustle behind one of the bushes, and saw a blonde head next to it. _Naruto . . .!_

Minato went over to the bush and looking behind it, who did he find? Naruto, of course. He was crouching down with his back to Minato.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Minato said as Naruto's body stiffened. He turned around slowly.

"Hello, _Naru-chan,"_ Minato said with an evil smile on his face.

"Hehe . . . Minato-sama," a nervous Naruto responded. "I didn't hear you coming." He sweatdropped.

"Hm . . .I can see that. There is one thing I would like to know, do you know what it is?" asked Minato with the same evil smile. Naruto shook his head and smiled at him nervously. "I would like to know if you know what the word _grounded_ means," Minato told him, emphasizing the word grounded.

"Actually . . . I do . . ." answered Naruto and stood up as he looked up at Minato with the same nervous smile.

"If that's the case, then I have another question for you . . . What do you think you're doing outside!?" Minato yelled, causing Naruto to jump back in shock.

"I-saw-this-flower-through-the-window-and-I-thought-that-it-was-pretty-so-I-wanted-to-take-it-inside!" said Naruto in one breath as he held a flower above his head to show it to Minato.

It was a red peony and Minato thought that it was beautiful. Its red colour reminded him of someone special. His face softened.

"We can put it in a vase with water when we get inside, okay? But don't go outside again, while you're grounded. You know you are not allowed to, so don't pull a stunt like this again," Minato warned him as they walked inside.

"I'm sorry . . ." Naruto answered, but made a horrible face at Minato when he wasn't looking, or so he thought.

"I saw that," Minato told him as he stopped and smirked at Naruto who went as red as a tomato. "Let's go inside now."

"H-hai!" answered Naruto and followed him through the backdoor.


	12. Taken away

**Chapter Twelve: Taken Away**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

It was night now and Naruto was asleep in his room. The peony was in a white vase on his bedside table, and it's red colour light up the entire room even though it was dark.

Naruto lay on his back, his chest rising in rhythm with the clock's ticking. Nothing seemed to be living in the room except for Naruto himself, but there was someone else in the room. Minato was watching his son with a smile. He remembered when he and Kushina chose the name Naruto.

"_Don't say that. I thought it was great! You have to believe more in yourself sensei!" said Minato as he waved one of Jiraiya's books in the air._

_Jiraiya had written a book that was about his previous and future life. A self bigrafphy._

"_Each chapter really seems like a page out of your own life, sensei, that's something amazing. It almost reads like an autobiography," said Minato again and Jiraiya looked in shock at him across the table._

_They were at Minato's house, talking._

"_Yeah, but__ . . .__ it didn't sell at all. Maybe I should try and sex up the sequel a little__ . . .__ that's my real forte, after all," Jiraiya said and scratched his chin as he looked at Minato in disbelief._

"_The way the main-character refused to give up, even at the end__ . . .__ that was really cool. He's just like you, sensei," said Minato and looked at the cover of the book as he smiled._

"_Hehehe__ . . .__ you think so?" asked Jiraiya and blushed as he smiled nervously. _

"_Actually, I was thinking__ . . .__" begun Minato and Jiraiya looked at him with a curious face. _

"_We want to raise our child to be a shinobi like the one in your book!" said Minato enthusiastically as he smiled wide. "That's why we've decided to name him after the character in your book. What do you think?" _

_Jiraiya looked at his student in shock. His face was pale and his mouth open, which made him look like a fish on land ."A-are you sure about this? It's just a random name I came up with while I was eating some ramen__ . . .__" he said as he stood up._

"_Naruto__ . . .__" said female voice, "It's a beautiful name."_

_A red haired woman stood behind Minato who was grinning widely. Her hair went all__the way down her back, hanging freely__. __She was very beautiful.__It was evident from her stomach that she was pregnant. In fact, it looked like she was going to blow up any minute._

"_Kushina-san__ . . .__" said Jiraiya as Kushina stroked her stomach carefully._

"_Haha, oh boy . . . if I name him, that makes me his godfather, right? Are you sure you want that on your shoulders? Seriuosly?" asked Jiraiya as he sat down again scratching his head and smiling nervously._

"_Absolutely!" said Minato as Kushina went towards her husband and laid a hand on his left shoulder. "You're a man with true skill . . . an example we should follow. I can't think of a finer shinobi than you," finished Minato as both he and Kushina smiled at a shocked Jiraiya._

_Jiraiya had given Naruto his name._

That idiot was Naruto's godfather since he came up with the name for Naruto. Minato smiled to himself. He left the room and closed the door quietly. He went to his own bedroom on the second floor and was soon asleep himself.

Little did Minato know that something was happening in Naruto's room. The red peony was changing. It was moving by itself and it was like it was looking at Naruto's sleeping form with non-existing eyes.

"_**Sov . . . i nattens mörka rum . . . det finns någon långt där borta . . . väntar på dig . . . väntar på mig . . .det finns någon här . . . jag finns här . . . du finns här . . . sov . . . glöm . . . försvinn . . . du är nu min . . ."**_ sang the peony. It was a sad song in a strange language. **(1)**

Naruto moved in his sleep and everything became strange around him. He opened his eyes and felt a pounding headache. He looked around and everything was dizzy; dancing in front of his eyes, he couldn't see a single thing clearly; all he could hear was that song.

"_**Natten är mörk**__** . . .**__** stjärnorna lyser**__** . . .**__** bara du är där**__** . . .**__** ensam**__** . . .**__** glömd**__** . . .**__** övergiven**__** . . .**__**"**_it sang and Naruto felt like crying, even though he couldn't understand it, but it sounded so sad.

The peony continued to sing as it changed form to something else. _**"Kärleken är borta . . . alla har gått ifrån dig . . . döden närmar sig . . . allting blir svart . . ." **_

Naruto couldn't see what was really happening but whatever it was it was something terrifying. He knew that something bad was about to happen, something really bad.

Right after thinking that, everything disappeared into a never-ending darkness. The song from the peony stopped, his bedroom disappeared and it became cold and lonely.

There were five ANBU currently on the roof. They could hear a song that made them feel both relaxed and calm, but also filled with horror.

"_**Sov . . . i nattens mörka rum . . . det finns någon långt där borta . . . väntar på dig . . . väntar på mig . . .det finns någon här . . . jag finns här . . . du finns här . . . sov . . . glöm . . . försvinn . . . du är nu min . . . natten är mörk . . . stjärnorna lyser . . . bara du är där . . . ensam . . . glömd . . . övergiven . . . Kärleken är borta . . . alla har gått ifrån dig . . . döden närmar sig . . . allting blir svart . . ."**_ the voice sang: it was sad and reminded them of death and life.

Soon after that the ANBU fell into darkness, consoling them.

Then there was a loud scream from a child.

Minato was asleep when he heard the song. Like the ANBU, he felt calm, but at the same time there was something terrible about the song, and it had to stop. Then he heard a scream and his eyes shot open.

"Naruto!"

"Kai (Release)!"he shouted.

He jumped out of bed while covering his ears against the song. Bear was guarding his bedroom door, but when Minato opened the door, Bear was asleep in front of it on the floor.

Minato didn't care; he just jumped over the body and hurried to the third floor where Naruto was. He slammed the door opened and expected to at least see something. Immediately, he noticed that Naruto wasn't there.

"Naruto . . ." called Minato with a small and sad voice, "Naruto are you here?" he asked and his voice started shaking.

"Naruto," he called out louder and began to look in the room for him. Under the bed, in the wardrobe, behind the door shouting Naruto's name the whole time.

"Naruto!" Minato screamed and opened the window to look at the garden, but there was no trace of Naruto.

It was then that he noticed it: the peony was gone as well.

Everything came crashing down for Minato. He had lost his wife and now he had lost his only son.

A heart-piercinh scream was heard in the night. "Naruto!" Minato was the source.

He had just lost his son.

It was the day after Naruto's disappearance and Minato was talking with Tsunade and Jiraiya. The ANBU who had been there at the time were still knocked out and Tsunade had tried everything to wake them up, so far unsuccessfully.

"They took him . . ." said Minato for the hundredth time that day, "And I couldn't do anything . . . I couldn't protect my own son . . ."

"Minato it wasn't your fault. They tricked us. There's nothing we could have done," Tsunade answered, feeling sad that the man in front of her was so powerless and broken.

"It was my fault! If I hadn't let Naruto pick that peony he would have been here now!" screamed Minato in her face, and both Jiraiya and Tsunade were shocked at his behavior. "Sorry, I . . . I just feel so helpless. If something's threatening my family or friends I chase the problem away, but this time . . . I couldn't . . ."

"Stop," said Jiraiya, causing Minato to look at his sensei. "This is not the Minato I knew. The Minato I knew is a strong man that won't give up even if the impossible is in front of him."

Minato didn't say anything; he just looked at Jiraiya with empty eyes.

"Don't you think that I'm worried over the kid too?" continued Jiraiya. "He's my godson and I care for him as if he were my own flesh and blood."

"You . . ." began Minato, looking at his sensei, but he couldn't finish the sentence.

"I also care for him Minato," said Tsunade. "He's a close friend of mine and I won't let him die or get harmed. I have already sent nearly twenty five ANBU, Jounin and Special Jounin after him," she finished and Minato broke his gaze with Jiraiya to look at her.

"You really do care for him like a grandson . . . both of you really do," said Minato smiling weakly. Tsunade went red because what Minato meant was that she_ and_ Jiraiya were like grandparents for Naruto.

"I'll let you get away with that, but only this time," she said and crossed her arms as she tried to control her anger.

Jiraiya just smiled at his previous students words.

"I'll go out-" began Minato, but got interrupted by Tsunade.

"You can go look for your son tomorrow. I know that you're very eager to get out and look for him but you have to get some sleep since you barely slept two hours last night. I can't possibly imagine you sleeping while you're out looking for Naruto," she said and smirked at Minato who got the point, even if he wasn't that happy about it

"Fine, but do you really think I can sleep at a time like this?" asked Minato looking at her in

disbelief.

"Yes I do. After I've given you some sleeping pills," Tsunade answered, smirking again when she saw Minato's shocked face.

Before he could react, Jiraiya covered Minato's mouth with his hand, which contained the pills. Minato was then forced to swallow them. He felt them start to kick in almost immediately.

"You old hag . . ." he said before he fell asleep.

The last thing he saw was Tsunade's pissed face.

"He really has some nerve to call me that," Tsunade mumbled under her breath as Jiraiya lifted Minato up and slung him over his shoulder.

"He'll wake up in twelve hours just so you know," Tsunade told Jiraiya.

He could tell that there was something bothering her, and it had nothing to do with the current situation with Naruto.

"What's with the face?" asked Jiraiya as Tsunade looked up at him and Minato who hung limp over his shoulder.

"You're heading out tomorrow," she said and Jiraiya understood what she meant. "You have to promise me that you'll come back in one piece."

"Oh, don't be so sentimental," smiled Jiraiya and Tsunade sighed.

"Promise . . ." she said and Jiraiya's smile was replaced by a very serious expression. "I don't know what I would do if I lost you too . . ."

"I said that you don't have to be so sentimental. I promise that I'll be back, okay," Jiraiya said, smiling again. "I'm going to get back to Konoha in one piece!"

Tsunade smiled, and Jiraiya left with the sleeping Yondaime over his shoulder.

"_**Meno shotto wo chi de . . . watashi ni nemuru tokei . . . watashi no atataka sawo kanji runoha . . . watashi no yoko niyukkurito fe^jingu . . ."**__ a woman sang in the far distance._

_"Kushina . . ." said Minato and looked in front of him. He was lying down on his back __with __only a white light around him._

"_**Karera ha kii tekure . . . jibun no namae to yoba rerusurebayoidesuka . . .? **__**Kanojo ha watashi niha ho^rudo . . . moshi kanojo ha watashi no haji wo shitte itaka . . .?"**__ she continued and Minato sat up. He was sure that the voice belonged to his wife Kushina._

_**"Sokohaitsumo nanika oko tteirusamazamana . . . watashi no pasu ha . . . ayamatta houkou he arui te . . . sokoni kaka tteirunohaitsumono suru . . . dare nimo tetsudatte kurerukotogadekite yoka ttadesuka . . .?" **__she sung louder and more powerful._

_Minato walked forward in the light. It felt like water was hitting him in the face, but he could breat__he __and he wasn't getting wet._

_**"Karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . tsumi wo okashi tani kaette konai . . . karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . tsumi wo okashi tani kaette konai . . ."**__ she sang even __louder and higher, each word touching his heart.  
__  
__**"Sono shunkan ga naku natta toki . . . himei wo age naito kiki mashita . . . bijon ha . . . yukkuritoshite naibu ni nokotte kure fe^jingu . . . karera ha kii tekure . . . jibun no namae to yoba rerusurebayoidesuka . . .? Watashi ha karera ho^rudo saeareba . . . watashi no haji wo shitte imasuka . . .?"**__ she continued, as Minato followed the sound. His surroundings were getting brighter and brighter for each step he took._

_**"Sokohaitsumo nanika oko tteirusamazamana . . . watashi no pasu ha . . . ayamatta houkou he arui te . . . sokoni kaka tteirunohaitsumono suru . . . dare nimo tetsudatte kurerukotogadekite yoka ttadesuka . . .?" **_

"_Kushina!" called Minato and turned around to see if she was behind him, but he only saw the same white __light that__ he had left._

_**"Karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . tsumi wo okashi tani kaette konai . . . karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . tsumi wo okashi tani kaette konai . . ."**__ she continued and her song was closer to Minato now._

"_Kushina! Where are you? Is it even you?!" he screamed into nothing and he already knew that he wasn't going to get an answer from the woman, she only __continued to sing__ her beautiful song._

_**"Watashi ga mita tokoro . . . kono heya no mae ni boroboro . . . kossetsu shite naoru nakunaruto . . . yori ooku arimasen . . . watashi ha watashi no saigo no iki wo tsuma rasete koremadeha . . . saigo nishiyouto omotte . . . watashi no sekai hayori ooku no jikan wo o^ba^ suru . . ."**__ she continued and her song was now even closer. _

"_Just please . . . answer! Where are you?" screamed Minato again and he was now running towards the song, running as if a life was on the line._

_**"Karera ha kii tekure . . . jibun no namae to yoba rerusurebayoidesuka . . .? Watashi ha karera ho^rudo saeareba . . . watashi no haji wo shitte imasuka . . .?"**_

_The song was so high that it hurt Minato's ears, but he didn't care. He h__ad__ to find the singer. Was it really Kushina? It was her voice and somehow . . . he recognized this song. He knew that he had heard it somewhere before, but where . . . and when?_

_**"Sokohaitsumo nanika oko tteirusamazamana . . . watashi no pasu ha . . . ayamatta houkou he arui te . . . sokoni kaka tteirunohaitsumono suru . . . dare nimo tetsudatte kurerukotogadekite yoka ttadesuka . . .?"**__ the song __was near__ the end and Minato had to __find__ the singer before it died away, he just had to!_

_**"Karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . tsumi wo okashi tani kaette konai . . . karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . yuuzai ni kuru . . ."**__ Minato could see a woman in a bright yellow dress not too far away. He recognized her._

"_Kushina!" he screamed and the woman in front of him continued to sing as she looked up at him with sadness in her eyes.  
_

"_**Karera no namida wo nagashi teinai aki ni . . . karera ha jibun no mawari no kurasshu . . . tsuuwa wo ishiki shite . . . tsumi wo okashi tani kaette konai,"**__ she had sung the whole song and just when she had finished it Minato embraced her with tears running down his cheeks._

"_**You have to find our son . . ."**__ she said and begun to disappear with tears running down her cheeks, __**"Find him, please . . ."**__she said as she looked up at Minato's face._

_She kissed him and then she disappeared as said one last thing. __**"I love you both . . . forever . . ."**_

"_Kushina!" screamed Minato and fell down on his knees; he had lost her again._

Minato woke up with a jerk, panting and sweating. He saw that he was in his room and remembered that Jiraiya had given him sleeping pills.

"I have to find Naruto . . ." he said and buried his face in his hands, "I really have to find him . . ."

Minato stood up and he staggered towards the door. He saw his hitai-ate and coat on a chair nearby, but he didn't bother to pick them up. He had to go looking for Naruto before it was too late.

He went out through the door, using the wall as support. He came to the stairs and made it about halfway down when he suddenly tripped and rolled down the rest of the way.

"AAH!" Minato screamed as he landed on his back with a loud thud.

"Minato-sensei, I see you're up," laughed Kakashi as he walked up to his sensei and helped him up on his feet.

"For how long have I been out?" asked a groggy Minato.

"Nearly thirteen hours. Tsunade told me to go check up on you. I just came through the door when I saw you _rolling_ down the stairs," Kakashi answered.

Minato rubbed his back as he stood up, his eyes widened when he heard what Kakashi said.

"thirteen hours! I have to look for Naruto!" screamed Minato and ran towards the door with Kakashi looking after him.

"Wait sensei," Kakashi called with a calm voice, only to meet with Minato's angry face. "You have to calm down, ANBU, Jounin and Special Jounin are out looking for Naruto and Tsunade gave you those pills so-"

"So I would at least sleep a little bit," interrupted Minato as he looked at his student; breathing slowly. "I know what she said and know that I have slept for thirteen whole hours. I have to look for Naruto."

"I understand, but at least wait until the sleeping pills-"

_Slam!_

Minato had shut the door and was now running towards the Hokage tower and Tsunade.

"Sensei . . ." sighed Kakashi and teleported away leaving a cloud of smoke behind him.

"Minato?" asked Tsunade when Minato ran into her office, looking very angry. "What brings you here?" she asked with a nervous smile.

"What brings me here?" repeated Minato incredulous. "Well, I _think_ that Naruto is gone so I thought maybe you had seen him?" He finished, emphasizing the word 'think.'

Tsunade could tell that he wasn't to be trifled with.

"I know that you're thinking that I'm evil, but if you want to you can look for him now," she answered in a serious tone. "He's your son after all."

"Oh, you really got that . . .? I'm going to look for him at once and this time I _will_ go," Minato told her and left the office.

"Wait Minato!" screamed Tsunade after him and ran to catch up with him. "Before you leave I have tell you something about Jiraiya . . ."

"What's up with sensei?" asked Minato and it smelled like trouble. "Has he gotten himself into trouble again?"

"No, he hasn't. He's on a mission . . ." Tsunade told him, avoiding eye contact with Minato who frowned, "He's . . . he's found the Akatsuki leader's current location. So he's heading there."

"What!?" shouted Minato which made Tsunade jump back in shock. "Why didn't you tell me that he was going out on a mission?"

"I know that you two are very close but he knew that you wouldn't like it if he told you . . ." continued Tsunade still avoiding eye contact, "'Cause he may not come back from it . . ."

Tsunade was holding back tears and Minato just stared at her sad face. Jiraiya had gone on a suicide mission? That wasn't possible!

"That's not true," Minato answered, shaking his head. "He can't go on a suicide mission. He has many more years to live, and . . ." he couldn't find words for it.

"He promised me to come back in one piece but I doubt it . . ." said Tsunade and tried to smile but it failed. "But he promised me . . ."

Minato embraced her as he said comforting words.

"That old man will come back alive even if I have to revive him and then kill him myself and after that I'll kill him again in his after life," said Minato.

Tsunade smiled at first, but then she starting crying.

"He'll come back . . ." Minato said trying to convince himself of that.

_What is this place . . .? And those people . . . who are they . . .? _thought Naruto as he lay down on a floor in a dark room.

He only felt pain and sadness. He had met people who had asked if he wanted to cooperate or take the consequesnses. They talked to him as if he was a real three-year-old, as if not knowing that he was Uzumaki Naruto, the container if Kyūbi, who had been in an accident and lost his real body not too long ago.

Naruto had said no and the woman he had talked with didn't like that. She had looked at him with evil eyes, but then she had smiled at him. It was not a nice smile.

"Do you know what kind of punishment I give to naughty boys?" she had asked Naruto who shook his head in confusion. "Until you say 'yes' there won't be any food for you."

Naruto gulped as he looked at the woman, but he couldn't see her face because of a purple hood she was wearing.

It had been one day since that time and Naruto hadn't eaten since his last night with Minato. He really wished that he could get out of here, but that woman had done something more to him than just given him a punishment. He couldn't use any chakra and he didn't know why.

_I want to go back to Konoha . . . _he thought again and huddled to a ball under the quilt he had.

The room he was in only had a window, a door and a quilt, so he was lying down on the floor and he was really freezing. It was so cold and it wouldn't surprise him if he caught a cold soon.

_I want Minato . . . _ he thought as he drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Jiraiya walked in the rain but luckily, he had a coat. It wasn't a joy to walk in the rain exactly, he would have preferred a sunny day with no clouds in the sky at all, but no . . . it just had to rain.

"It's just great . . ." said Jiraiya to himself as he rolled his eyes. He felt a rain drop hitting his nose. "Stupid rain . . ." he cursed. You could hear a lot more if you listened carefully.

* * *

**(1) **This is my native actually, lol, if you wanna know what it sasy, you can PM me. However, that 'song' I wrote . . . it's just weird . . .


	13. One week

**Chapter Thirteen: One Week**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Minato ran the fastest he could as the trees pasted by as a blurry mess. He didn't care that the ANBU who had followed him were falling behind. He only had one thing in mind: finding Naruto.

"Hokage-sama!" called an ANBU and Minato clenched his fists as he stopped. "You have to calm down. We can't keep up with your speed."

"I'm very sorry, but I have to find Naruto," explained Minato with a calm face but inside he was burning with rage and worry.

"I understand Hokage-sama," said the ANBU as he bowed deep. "But you have to keep calm. What if we got attacked? You need to be prepared for anything."

"I know that," Minato answered shortly, but then sighed.

"Gomen nasai," said the ANBU bowing again afraid that he had offended the Yondaime Hokage by saying that he wasn't aware of what could happen on a mission.

Minato nodded his head and turned around to run again. They were heading towards the Hidden Village in the Grass. They were going to talk to the leader of the village in Kusa to see if they had seen any strange people passing through or if there were many visitors in the village. If there were, he may find Naruto . . .and if the strangers had a child with them . . . they could be Tsuwamono members.

They had been out for four days and soon they would reach the Village Hidden in the Grass. Minato had pushed the ANBU almost to the edge of their limit. They hadn't stopped since they left and they weren't going to sleep for the night or eat. Minato was getting more worried for each day that passed because he wasn't getting anywhere. He would have been able to reach the Village Hidden in the Grass in barely one day if he didn't have the ANBU with him. It was really frustrating.

The rain was pouring down and two men were walking near the river.

"What a heavy rainfall . . ." said one of them and lifted his hat a bit, which was on his head so the rain wouldn't soak him.

"How 'bout we go find a place to have a drink and escape this lousy weather," said the second man who had a scar on his right cheek that looked really horrible.

"This is the bottom level, there's nothing here . . . all the shops and bars are above us you idiot," said the first man again, who had blue eyes that matched the weather for the day.

"Teme . . ." the other man said and glared at the first man who smirked. "We'll just have to go up and find a level then . . . and be rained on along the way . . ." he said under his breath, but then he noticed a big sign that stood on the ground.

_Grand Opening Today! All You Can Drink For 500 Ryous! _An arrow was pointing towards a large bar not far away and the men's faces lit up.

"Looks like were in luck!" they said at the same time.

"Welcome!" said an old man with a large moustache and thick glasses. He was polishing a glass and smiled at them.

"It's just the two of us," said the first man and took off his hat as they entered the bar, soaking the floor in the process.

"Give us some drinks and side dishes, will you?" said the second man and followed the first man's example and took his hat off.

They sat on with huge grins on their faces. "Isn't this our lucky day, huh?" said the second man who had short brown hair and a hitai-ate with the Village Hidden in the Rain's symbol on it.

"I heard that Pein-sama has some other stuff to do . . . these days he might have to go to some other countries," said the first man who had blonde shoulder length hair and a hitai-ate that not only covered his forehead but the main part of his head as well.

"But to have it rain off schedule . . . this has never happened before," said the brown haired man and glared back at the blonde man who blinked.

"It gotta be quite the mission then," said the blonde and crossed his arms on the bar disk in front of him.

"But if it goes on like this . . ." sighed the brown haired man and did the same as the blonde and crossed his arms on the bar disk.

"Hey!" shouted the blonde with an upset face. "Pein-sama has done quite a lot for the people in this village, of these _streets!_ Just bear with it for a bit," he growled and he really looked not only upset but pissed.

"That's true, I agree," answered the brown haired man with a smirk as he looked at the blonde beside him.

"Sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting," interrupted the old man who was still polishing the glass he had in his hand. The two men looked up in surprise at him but then changed to two wide smiles. Alcohol!

"But hey . . . where are our food?" asked the brown haired man and looked at the barman with confusion eyes.

"Since it's our grand opening today we've got something special for you guys," said the man and smiled a smile that reached from ear to ear under the moustache.

"OH! Really!?" shouted the brown haired man out of happiness and excitement.

"The two of you are really lucky today!" said the barman and held up to fingers in front of him. _"Kai!" _There in front of them stood a smiling toad Sannin; Jiraiya.

Jiraiya jumped up on the bar disk, smiling as the two Rain shinobis jumped back with kunai ready in their hands.

"You! Who the bloody hell are you!?" screamed the blonde as he charged.

"I'm the one who's going to ask the questions here, and just so you know, I got a lot of questions on line just waiting to be asked," answered Jiraiya with a smirk.

"WHOOA!" screamed the men inside the house or . . . rather the house that was changing as the men's scream left their lungs.

It became a . . . toad. It shrunk and shrunk until it was as big as a man's clenched fist. It jumped towards the water and dived in with a little splash.

A man in a black cloak with red clouds stood on a high building and watched the rain pour down. He had brown hair and gray eyes that were divided in circles and his entire face was covered with piercing.

"Konan, when I stop the rain, use your jutsu to find the intruder," he said and looked at a blue haired woman who was the same woman who had kidnapped Naruto not too long ago.

"I'll take care of it . . ." she said and looked at the pouring rain as well.

The man made the hand seal 'bird.' "Here I go," he said and then he made an earth seal.

"Alright . . ." said Konan and made the sheep hand seal.

The rain stopped as the man with the piercing lifted his arms towards the sky.

"Do it now, Konan," said the man and looked back at the woman who nodded.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Cracks were created in her face as she closed her eyes and soon her face became paper that spread across the place they were standing in and then they flew away with the air. Her entire body had become paper and she was now flowing around as thousands of paper pieces.

The paper turned itself into butterflies that took of and flew towards the city in front of them. The man only stood there and watched the butterflies fly away.

Minato finally reached Kusa and the first thing he did was to run to the leader of the Village Hidden in the Grass. The ANBU who had followed were exhausted and also worried over their Hokage who was very . . . well . . . he was very close a nervous breakdown. But he's the Hokage! He can't have a nervous breakdown; it's not like him at all!

Minato stood in front of a large black door. He knocked three times and heard a 'come in' from the other side of the door so he entered.

"Yondaime-sama!" exclaimed the leader of the Village Hidden in the Grass; Daichi Kurosa. "But you are-"

"Yes I was dead but I'm alive again," Minato explained quickly, trying to keep himself calm. "I'm here to ask you some important questions."

"Wait, I'm very sorry Yondaime-sama but I have to know: How can you be alive? You used Shiki Fūjin and died," said Kurosa as he stood up behind his desk.

"I lived in a parallel universe until the Fifth Hokage used a jutsu that revived me," lied Minato nodding towards Kurosa with a little smile. "I hope that you'll excuse me but I have to ask you some questions now."

"I'm very sorry for interrupting, you may ask your questions and I hope that I'll be able to answer them," answered Kurosa and offered Minato and seat, which he took.

"I would like to know if there are any strange people in town at the moment," asked Minato looking at Kurosa who had a thoughtful face.

"There . . ." began Kurosa and closed his eyes as he rubbed his temples. "There were three hooded men here, not too long ago. Normally people who come here don't have their hoods up to show that they're friendly, but those men had their hoods up," Kurosa finished looking at Minato who sighed.

"Did they have a child with them?" asked Minato going straight to the point. "Or was one of the men carrying something that could be a human?"

"Not that I know of. A villager informed me about the men," Kurosa answered and got the feeling that the Yondaime was very worried over something. "What has happened? You seem to be very worried over something and . . . this child that you're talking about?"

Minato thought about how he should answer for a minute. Then he said, "Those men have taken my son and I need to get him back."

Kurosa's worried face changed to an angry one. "They took your child?" he asked and Minato heard that he was pissed. "That is nothing that I'll accept."

"I appreciate that, but you're sure that no one mentioned or saw a child?" Minato asked once again, trying to keep calm.

"I can't be absolutely sure since I heard it from a random villager, I'm sorry Yondaime-sama," Kurosa told Minato sadly. "I can send men to help you with the search," he offered Minato trying to catch his gaze but Minato looked away.

"I appreciate your offer and I wish I could accept it but I can't," Minato answered.

He didn't want too many people looking for Naruto, since he felt very bad that he wasn't able to protect his own son in the first place.

"I'm sorry too, but I won't accept your answer. I will help you to look for your son," said Kurosa smiling at Minato who finally smiled back.

"Fine," he said finally looking Kurosa in the eyes. "I want to go out looking for him as soon as possible but I can't bring the ANBU with me."

"Why not? Aren't they supposed to protect you from danger?" asked Kurosa looking at the man in front of him.

"Yes they are, but I wasn't chosen to be Hokage for nothing," answered Minato with a smirk. Kurosa smiled again. "I'll be searching the Rain country on my own and your men can search through the _whole_ Village Hidden in the Grass and after that they can search in the Village Hidden in the Waterfall and so on."

"That sounds fine to me," said Kurosa with a soft smile. "I guess that we better get going, then? But wait . . . you're sure that you don't want to rest for a bit before we head out?"

"I don't have time to rest, I have to find my son," Minato answered shortly. He was getting annoyed that everyone said that he had to calm down, eat and rest.

"It's for your own good. I don't think that your son would be happy if he learns that something happened to you while you were looking for him because you didn't take care of yourself properly." Kurosa told him.

That did it for Minato. "Fine, but we'll leave first thing in the morning," Minato answered, defeated, as Kurosa nodded.

"So be it."

"Now then . . ." said Jiraiya to the two men who stood in front of him, now tied up in the large wall that was made out of a toad's belly, "Judging from your seemingly low standards and mannerisms, you must be the bottom-most of the fodder nins, right?"

"Kuso!!" screamed the brown haired man at Jiraiya who just looked at him with a smile.

"Where the bloody hell are we you baka!?" asked the other man.

"Inside the belly of my little friend, as you may have noticed. I can see that you've never seen a toad's belly before," smiled Jiraiya as he looked at them.

"You . . . you are that . . . you are that toad Sannin, aren't you!?" exclaimed the blonde man with a shocked and annoyed face.

"I thought that I told you that I'm the one doing the asking here, not you you braindead idiots," said Jiraiya with a smirk. "Right?"

"You . . . what are you going to do with that feather?" continued the blonde to Jiraiya as he held a feather in his hand.

"It's for tickling!" said an amused Jiraiya as he closed his eyes and smiled wide from ear to ear. "If you don't want to get tickled to death, you better answer my questions like good boys should do . . . right?"

Minato was in a big room that Kurosa had given him. It was reserved for important people visiting in Kusa. It was already pitch black outside and the ANBU who had followed Minato were somewhere else resting.

He lay on his stomach in a big bed with green and white sheets, unable to sleep due to thinking about Naruto. He had tried to sleep but he just couldn't, he was too worried over his son. He turned his head to the other side and tried to fall asleep again. He relaxed and just lay there thinking of nothing, but it didn't work.

"This is just great," Minato muttered to himself as he rolled over to his back. He closed his eyes again and exhaled.

After a couple of hours he finally fell asleep and dreamt of nothing.

The next day Minato woke up by a light knock on the door. He sighed and ignored the knock, he was too tired to get up; he just wanted to sleep. He didn't hear the knock again for while. He smiled as he lay down on his stomach.

_Knock, knock._

Minato cursed under his breath and put a pillow over his head, still ignoring the knocking on the door. He was too tired to get up . . . too tired to even answer . . . too tired to think . . . he was too tired to . . . _Naruto_!

Minato sat up in the bed with a jerk and then he heard the knocking again as he glared at the door.

"Come on in!" he shouted after he had put his trousers on. It was a young lady who entered the room.

"I am very sorry to disturb your sleep Yondaime-sama but it is already two in the afternoon," said the lady as Minato's eyes widened in shock. "Kurosa-sama told me to get you since you were supposed to do something important today."

Minato grabbed his shirt and the rest of his clothes. "Thank you," he said and followed the lady out through the door.

They entered the same office Minato had been in the previous day. As they did so, Minato saw Kurosa behind the desk, waiting for him. Minato didn't even notice that the lady left the room, he was too mad.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up? I said that I had to look for my son," Minato said angrily, but trying not to shout at Kurosa.

"I'm very sorry that we didn't, but you had to get some rest even if this is very important. I think that you know why I did that Yondaime-sama," explained Kurosa and stood up. "But you shouldn't worry too much. I have already sent out my men to look in the Village Hidden in the Grass. They went very early this morning and I'm sure that they already have searched through more than half of the Village already."

Minato closed his eyes and sighed. "Have they found anything yet?" he asked with a sharp tone in his voice.

"They managed to find one hooded man barely one hour ago and two of my men are escorting him here at this moment. If you want to, you can talk to him after we verify that he's one of those men who took you son," said Kurosa. "But you have to wait to do your searching in Rain Country until they get here."

"I guess I have to," Minato answered, and left the room with a little nod.

He went back to his room and sat down on the bed. He sighed and did his best to not get up and destroy something. It had already been five days since Naruto was taken away from him and Konoha; it was getting more frustrating for Minato. He couldn't find his own son.

_Naruto, where can you be? I hope you're alright__ . . ._

"AAH!"

Minato heard a very angry scream from behind a door that he just stopped in front of. The man Kurosa's men had found was not very pleased with the situation.

Minato entered the door with a serious and emotionless face that looked very calm. The truth was that Minato was really pissed at the moment. If this man were from the organisation that had taken Naruto, he wasn't going to play nice.

"You're the one who's supposed to examine me?" asked the man in front of Minato. He sat on the only chair in the room and his hands were tied up behind his back. "They said that a man would come here and ask more questions."

"Well, they were right," answered Minato without moving anything except for his mouth. He gave the man a hateful glare. "And we're just getting started. So brace yourself."

Minato took a step forward without breaking the eye contact. He crossed his arms and the man looked at him with a smirk.

"What's your name?" began Minato as he looked at the man without blinking.

"Mentaru."

"What were you doing here in the Village Hidden in the Grass?" he continued.

"I was here on a mission from my home village."

"What was the mission?" asked Minato.

Mentaru felt a bit uncomfortable under Minato's death glare.

"To bring a man here."

"A client?" he asked, making sure that the examination went slowly just to see if he could get to the man.

"Yes."

"What village are you from?"

"The Village Hidden in the Stars."

"Really? And why did they send you to accomplish this mission?" Minato pressed him.

"I'm a very good shinobi and I have accomplished many high ranked missions before so they trusted me with this mission."

"I see . . . but how come you don't have a hitai-ate on you?" asked Minato blinking for the first time.

Mentaru felt even more uncomfortable than before but he didn't show anything on his face. He didn't answer at first and Minato then knew that this man really was from the organisation, even if he didn't have any proof on it yet.

"Where are your fellows?" Minato asked him again, ignoring the fact that the man didn't answer the other question.

"I took this mission on my own."

Minato smirked. "Why?"

"I already told you," answered Mentaru making a similar smirk to Minato's.

"Okay . . . but then I wonder something. Have you ever heard about the organisation Tsuwamono?" Minato smirked again when Mentaru paled.

"Tsuwamono you say?" Minato nodded and Mentaru gulped. "I've heard of it . . ."

"Where are they now?" Minato questioned and ignored that Mentaru said something.

"Who are where?"

"Your fellows?" asked Minato again and Mentaru looked at him in confusion.

"I said that I don't have any-" began Mentaru but couldn't speak more when a hand reached out and grabbed his throat.

"Don't make me repeat myself!" Minato ground out angrily, but loosened his grip around Mentaru's throat somewhat so he could talk.

"I've already answered-"

"I know that you're from this organisation so don't play games with me," Minato said with a sharp edge to his voice.

He had held the same emotionless face during the whole examination, and it scared Mentaru.

"They left . . ." he finally said and Minato's grip tightened.

"To where?"

"I don't know . . . when you took me they left . . ." he answered.

"How many where there?"

"Three . . ." answered Mentaru.

"Three men?" Minato questioned.

"Yes . . ."

"They hadn't anyone with them? A woman?" asked Minato trying to confuse the man.

"No, it was only the four of us . . ." Minato's grip tightened even more as he lifted the man up so he stood on the floor in front of him.

"Where were you heading?" Minato growled, seeing the fear in the man's eyes. He didn't enjoy it but he knew that he was finally getting to him.

"To Fire Country . . ." answered Mentaru, now struggling to breathe.

"Fire Country? For what purpose?" Minato demanded.

The man smiled. "You'd like to know huh . . .? I'm not telling ya . . ." he said and Minato felt the anger rise inside him.

"It's okay that you won't tell us," Minato answered, calmly, smiling, as Mentaru looked at him in confusion and fear. That smile meant big trouble for him he knew it.

"But . . ." began Mentaru and stopped. His eyes rolled back in his head and blood came out of his mouth. He coughed a couple of times and his body shook very violently.

When Minato's hand let go of Mentaru's throat a seal was shown in Minato's hand and smoke came from it. It was the same seal that was now left on Mentaru's throat.

Minato looked at the man briefly and then went out of the room. He had the same emotionless expression on his face.

When Kurosa's men came to take Mentaru back to his cell, he was lying on floor with a terrifying expression on his face and his body was emptied of all fluids. Blood and water lay around him and the men who had entered the room turned around and promptly threw up.


	14. Who is Pein?

**Chapter Fourteen: Who Is Pein?**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

"Something is disturbing the rain . . ."

Minato was once again running in the forest and this time, he was heading towards the Rain Country. It was getting colder and colder the closer he got to the Rain Country. He felt that something wasn't going that well.

A shinobi could be heard roaring with laughter.

The brown haired shinobi laughed as Jiraiya tickles him under the arms. His shirt has been ripped off and was lying on the floor, or . . . on the toad's 'bellyfloor.'

"Here, now spill it!" said Jiraiya smirking as he tickled the man.

"Guh . . . pfft . . . uh . . . ugheh . . ." the brown haired man made a lot of different noises as he tried to not laugh or say something to Jiraiya who just continued to smirk.

"Don't give in! Whatever you do, don't give in!" screamed the other blonde shinobi as he looked in horror at his fellow who tried his best to not laugh.

"I'll never be-betray . . . uh . . . gu . . . heh . . ." said the man who was being tickled by Jiraiya, "My fellow . . . heh . . . pfft . . .!" He laughed again.

"You're a bit tougher than I expected . . . seems like this calls for my secret weapon, huh . . ." said Jiraiya as the brown haired man tried to catch his breath from all the laughing. Jiraiya looked at him with disappointment.

"Wh-what do you mean!?" asked the blonde man who looked at Jiraiya in shock and then at his friend in confusion and worry.

"If you're not giving me anything, then I'll use my jutsu to turn you into frogs!" threatened Jiraiya as he looked at the blonde with a devil's smile and eyes. The men didn't say a thing. The blonde just looked at Jiraiya with disbelief as the other man still tried to catch his breath.

Jiraiya looked at them with a shocked and disappointed face. He thought that it would work on them. "I'll . . . turn . . . you . . . two . . . into . . . frogs . . ." he said as he sweatdropped; looking at a different spot than at the men.

The men didn't say a thing; they just looked at Jiraiya who looked back at them with a nervous face.

"GAHAHAHA!" laughed the brown haired shinobi as Jiraiya tickled him again but with not as much enthusiasm as before. "HAHAHAHA!"

"Just what is it you want, anyway!?" screamed the blonde shinobi as he saw his friend getting tickled again.

"There, now spill it!" said Jiraiya as he smirked towards the blonde man.

"We might be underlings, but we're still shinobi, we'll never betray our comrades!" screamed the blonde to Jiraiya who just looked at him as he continued to tickle the other man. "You can't do anything to change that! Don't you dare underestimate us!" he finished with a really, pissed facical expression.

"Hehe . . . well then I have no choice . . ." said Jiraiya with a smirk as he made a hand seal. _Ninja art: frog transformation jutsu!_

He touched the brown haired man's forehead with a loud slap.

"No . . . don't!" screamed the man as he felt Jiraiya's hand.

_POOF_

The blonde man looked at a big cloud of smoke where his friend should be. He was shocked when he saw the smoke disappear . . .

"Ribbit, ribbit!"

"You! How could you sink so low!? How could you!?" shouted the blonde at Jiraiya when he saw that his friend was a big yellow frog now.

"And you are the next in line . . ." whispered Jiraiya as he leant towards the blonde with a scary face.

"Pein-sama resides within the tallest of the western towers . . . or so they say," the blonde supplied quickly to avoid the same fate as his friend.

"Oh? What's this? Seems you betrayed your comrades quite easily . . . huh . . .?" mocked Jiraiya and smiled a crooked smile as he looked at the blonde with creepy eyes. The blonde blushed and looked away as he pouted.

"But whatever . . . what did you mean by 'or so they say?" asked Jiraiya with a serious face.

"The things is . . . nobody really knows all that much about Pein-sama," explained the blonde as if he were talking to a friend rather than an enemy.

"And by that you mean?" asked Jiraiya again with a confused and worried face.

"It's said that his blood is that of the Fuuma-clan . . . but no one knows exactly what he looks like, and there is even those who suggest he doesn't truly exist," said the blonde as he looked down at his feet.

"Ah, but just from strolling about this city . . . almost everyone mentioned his name, and with the utmost respect . . . don't trifle with me now!" Jiraiya bellowed, rapidly loosing his patience.

"In this city Pein-sama is effectively a god . . . whether he physically exists or not isn't of issue . . . he looks over and protects us at all times. From foes and from other things that may be a threat towards our villages and country . . ." answered the blonde with a deep frown on his face, "Events of celebrations, speeches, decrees . . . every one of his words are transmitted through proxy."

"But he's your leader, correct? Why would he need to conceal his identity?" asked Jiraiya, who now had a thoughtful look on his face. He looked away from the man for a moment.

"For situations like 'this' obviously . . ." answered the blonde, still frowning.

"Fair enough . . ." said Jiraiya as he lifted a brow.

"You . . . you're not part of the remnants of the former Amagakure, are you?" asked the blonde with a confused face. "Who are you anyway?"

"That's non of your concern . . . but tell me, just what do you mean by 'remnants of the former Amagakure?'" asked Jiraiya again; a deep frown on his face.

"Heh . . . you really don't know anything, do you?" said the blonde and looked back at Jiraiya. "An outsider, huh . . .? Until just a short time ago the remnant faction would infiltrate us at every chance they got, looking to kill Pein-sama . . . of course such worries are behind us . . . if someone could hope sneak and blend in here it'd be a lucky outsider, such as yourself," finished the blonde with a smirk.

"No more worries? And that would mean just what? I 'have' been told you're in the middle of a civil war," said Jiraiya as he looked at the blonde with confusion.

"I'd expect as much. This country is quite isolationistic, here I'll tell you . . ." said the blonde with a smirk, "This civil war is over with, and we won! And that's the reason Pein-sama is a legend, he destroyed Amagakure all by himself."

Jiraiya looked in shock at the blonde who just had told him that the great Amagakure had been defeated. "Impossible . . ." he whispered, mostly to himself.

"Regardless of how strong this pain may be, Amagakure's leader 'Salamander Hanzou', is renowned to the point that every shinobi everywhere will recongnize the name!" said the blonde and he got more serious for each word he said. "And possessing not only immense power, Hanzou was highly cautious approaching his side being a feat in itself. Personal guards were stationed right by him in twenty four hours rotation, and security was to the point thet even children were searched before meeting him," said the blonde and sighed at the last part.

"And just how was Hanzou killed?" demanded Jiraiya with a growing rage inside him. "What are Pein's abilities?"

"I already told you, didn't I? We don't know anything about him!" answered the blonde.

Jiraiya tried to keep himself calm. He thought back about the Hanzou he had once met.

"_This battle, in all likelihood will end in Konoha's vicory__ . . .__" said Hanzou a man dressed __as a Rain Country nin__. "I'll spare your lives but__ . . .__"_

"_I don't want your mercy!" screamed a younger Jiraiya who __leant__ against a younger Tsunade. "I can still fight!" he shouted, through the heavy rainfall._

"_Jiraiya! Don't!" screamed Tsunade._

"_The three of you are strong__ . . .__" continued Hanzou as if he hadn't been interrupted and he looked down at Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru who stood on a bloody War field. "Even within this strife, you survived," he continued. "I, Hanzou, will hereby honor you as the 'Sannin of Konoha.' In exchange for you lives, you shall refer to yourself as such," he finished_.

Jiraiya sighed as he closed his eyes. "I can't believe it . . . how could Hanzou possibly have been beaten by one single man?" asked Jiraiya as he opened his eyes again and looked at the blonde.

"Heh . . . this is a god we're talking about, his jutsu are quite fearsome," said the blonde and smiled again. "But the true horror of Pein-sama is not his jutsu . . ." Jiraiya looked in shock and confusion at him. "The true horror lies in his strong and ruthless heart of blades."

Jiraiya was even more shocked and confused than before.

"Those who might threaten his ideals are crushed without remorse . . . he did not kill only Hanzou himself, but also after murdering his parents, wife and children, he extended his terror to all of Hanzou's relatives and friends, even their babies, and then, after burning all their houses, he turned to clients of the villages that maintained connections, killing all . . . everything was reduced no nothing," said the blonde and he seemed both scared and shocked himself that their leader were such a human, if he even was human.

Jiraiya was also shocked at the news and couldn't really believe what he heard. How could a single man do all that and be so . . . horrifying . . .

"It was judgment, exactly like that of a god . . ."

Not far from Jiraiya and the blonde man, Pein was walking inside a building. He touched a wall inside a large room and a huge hole was created out of it. Pein entered and everything was pitch black.

He lay down in a machine of some kind that resembled a bed but when he lay down he fell asleep at once. After that something else was moving inside the room . . .the bodies of six Akatsuki members . . .

"Well then . . . time to hunt the intruder," said another man who also lay in a machine that looked like a bed.

Minato was coming closer to the Rain Country. It was raining very heavily now, but he didn't care, he had to find Hanzou who he knew was the leader over the Rain Country. Or . . .

Naruto lay on the floor. Not thinking about anything: he only felt pain.

His eyes were dull and tears were streaming down his checks. He was dirty and had wounds all over his body. Both fresh and dry blood was on his skin, clothes, floor and the quilt he was lying on.

"He's only a kid! Why are you treating him like this!?" screamed a man in blue clothes to a woman who stood looking at her reflection in a mirror.

"He's not a normal kid. He knows what will happen if he won't behave properly," answered the woman. "He's not like other children."

"But still! He's only a little child! Why are you hurting him so much!?" screamed the man.

The woman was really pissed at him. She looked away from the mirror and locked the man's gaze with her own.

"Because I can," she answered with an evil smile that gave the man in front of her chills down his spine.

"A God, huh?" said Jiraiya and raised an eyebrow.

"Exactly," answered the blonde man who still was stuck in the toad's belly wall.

Jiraiya closed his eyes for a moment. "Well then, what is it this god of yours is trying to do?" he asked. "Low ranking as you may be, you should know at least something, right?"

"It's the work of a god. How could we ever hope to know?" said the blonde with a smirk.

"I see . . . then enough with your god, how about you tell me some relating to Akatsuki?" said Jiraiya and he was really beginning to lose his patience.

"No can do, don't know what it is," said the blonde in a mocking tone and Jiraiya looked at him with controlled calm.

"Note your arms and legs, I've got them restrained so you can't move, but that's not all . . ." said Jiraiya with an evil smile, "I'm also monitoring you pulse. That means when you lie, I know immediately. Now spill it, anything and everything," said Jiraiya and raised his hand towards the man. "If you don't, you'll be dining on flies and other swamp bugs for the rest of your life!"

"Guh . . ." said the blonde. "Go ahead, make me a frog or whatever! I'm not telling one more damned thing!" he screamed and Jiraiya just looked at him. "Even us underlings have our pride, that of a shinobi! I don't have anything else to tell an outsider who doesn't know a thing about our country!"

Jiraiya continued to simply look at the man who now was panting heavily after yelling so much.

"Heh . . . lowly as you are, still a shinobi, huh? Very well, interrogation doesn't fit my personality well anyhow. Our talk will end here, but you'll have to stay here for the time being. Perhaps I'll get the rest of my information from that god of yours," said Jiraiya as he went through a large hole in the belly of his toad. The hole closed and the man was left alone as Jiraiya came into a huge platform.

He made an earth hand seal and a frog appeared in his mouth. It jumped out and a large pillar followed it until the frog and the while pillar was out of Jiraiya's mouth.

"Jiraiya! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing, bringing me out here!? You know quite well about 'Naruto's key." Said the frog and crossed his arms.

The pillar the frog stood on was standing on the belly floor and it reached about four or five metres above the ground.

"Oh no, I'm not planning on more training," answered Jiraiya. "Certain circumstances have me wanting you to stay out here for the time being."

"Stay out, you say?" repeated the frog. "What's going on?"

"I'll be fighting a slightly tough opponent, so . . ." began Jiraiya but got interrupted by the frog.

"Heh . . . someone so strong that you need to let me get away beforehand?" said the frog with a frown and a smirk.

"This is just in case, but anyway, I need to be stamping the storage release order now," said Jiraiya and the big pillar the frog had been standing on, was actually a huge scroll that rolled itself up in front of Jiraiya. Jiraiya held his hand up to the paper, which contained a lot of text and a seal.

He put his hand on a square with burning fingers. "Alright!" he said as he finished.

"And how long will you be?" asked the frog as the scroll closed again.

"I shouldn't be too long, but just in case something happens to me, store yourself with Naruto and . . ." but he got interrupted again and this time by a very angry frog.

"What the heck are you saying!? It's my belly that has the key matching Naruto's hake seal drawn on it!" screamed the frog in fury. "And with each year the fourth's seal weakens! This key was left so that the seal could be reinforced should the need present itself! How could you think of putting such an important key on the very safe it matches!?"

Jiraiya smirked, he was going to scare the frog, just a little bit. "Nonetheless, that key was left behind by Minato himself, at some point it should become Naruto's," he said and tried to keep himself from laughing.

"HE ISN'T READY YET!" screamed the frog and Jiraiya sighed. "Surely you haven't forgotten what happened before when you convinced me to twist the shishou seal just a bit, because I can't imagine you have!" at that comment Jiraiya's face became very serious.

"No I haven't, but Minato's choice to entrust the key's jutsu design is, for me . . . a clear sign that he intended Naruto to one day complete 'that' jutsu," said Jiraiya and wasn't sure if he was going to tell the frog what had happened yet.

"But does Naruto have any need for that in the first place!?" said the frog and he was really mad. "He isn't even capable of controlling the nine-tail's chakra! From just opening the seal a crack, Naruto's chakra was pushed aside, the nine-tail's chakra gushed out, and Naruto was taken over by it. Speaking of the fourth's intentions, it's safe to say that opening the seal more and causing Naruto to fully become the nine-tails would be strictly against them!"

"Minato only sealed the nine-tails yin chakra using the _Shiki Fūjin_. The very reason Minato went to the trouble of splitting the nine-tails chakra into two, only sealing that yang chakra into Naruto, was so that he could leave it for Naruto's own use," said Jiraiya. "Still, why would one seal the nine-tails chakra in his very own child?"

"Who knows? Perhaps Naruto happened to he his most or only viable option for the jutsu, or of not, surely wanting to leave power behind for one's child is the very definition of parent love," said the frog and Jiraiya smirked which would have caused the frog to raise an eyebrow, if he had had one.

"I am Minato's master, so I know him quite well . . ." Jiraiya answered, which confused the frog; _am? _"He's not the type to do things without a reason, you see, Minato knows of something, something of grave importance, and if because of that something he chose to entrust the nine-tails to his own son . . ."

"You're just thinking to deep," said the frog, which caused Jiraiya to stop talking for a moment.

"It's said that the nine-tails was a naturally occurring disaster that just happened to strike Konoha," said Jiraiya again. "But recently I've begun to doubt whether that truly is the case."

"Huh?" asked the frog in more confusion.

"I'm certain that it was the result of a very intentional summoning . . ."

"Are you crazy or what!? The nine-tails is an age-old natural disaster that suddenly appears from nowhere when human malice collects festers!" screamed the frog again and Jiraiya was getting tired of its screaming. "Besides, no one could possibly exist capable of summoning something such as the nine-tails!"

"I know but there was one, just one . . ." said Jiraiya and closed his eyes again; thinking.

"Who?" asked the frog when Jiraiya didn't answer at first.

"Founder of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Madara."

"RIBBIT! CROAK! RIBBIT!" laughed the frog as he held his stomach and Jiraiya just looked at the frog in front of him. "Spare me! Uchiha Madara lived at the founding of Konoha! There's no way in the seven hells that he'd been alive just fifteen years ago!"

"Granted," said Jiraiya. "Uchiha Madara having be defeated by the first Hokage at the Valley of the End is something known to all. Still, Minato and I have a really bad feeling about this. It's a premonition that just won't go away."

"What do you mean you and Minato? Minato is dead," said the frog and looked down at Jiraiya.

"Just lets say that if we entrust Naruto with the key, Minato will be there to help out," Jiraiya answered cryptically, and crossed his arms as he smiled a huge smile from ear to ear.

"You're . . . you're telling me that the Fourth's alive?" asked the frog as he pointed at Jiraiya who smiled wider, if that even was possible.

"Yup!"

"WHAT!?"


	15. Goodbye

**Chapter Fifteen: Goodbye**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2007  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Minato had been in Rain Country for nearly ten days and he hadn't found anything yet. He kept looking and looking and looking. Then one day, during one of his searches, he found something that wasn't good. It was Jiraiya's chakra: It didn't feel right.

Minato had been sitting on a large building at the time when he felt it. He immediately jumped up and hurried away to go look for his sensei.

_Where are you sensei? _He thought, feeling the panic rise inside him._ What happened to you?_

He could only feel a little of Jiraiya's chakra, and it was fading more and more for each second that passed, and it was fading very fast. He was dying. How could this have happened? What happened? What caused his condition? Was it someone or something that made it?

The questions were spinning like crazy in Minato's head and he couldn't control himself. He used Hirashin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique) to get to Jiraiya as quickly as possible. Why hadn't he felt anything before? Why hadn't he felt anything when Jiraiya got hurt?

The closer he got the more destroyed the surrounding became. Minato knew at once that a fight had taken place here.

_Sensei!_he thought and ran through an alley where he saw blood.

Minato looked at it and then he continued until he came to a large lake. His eyes widened. In front of him was a lake red of blood, and what frightened him the most was that he could feel Jiraiya at the bottom of the lake.

"No, this can't be happening . . ." said Minato to himself as he looked around and then back at the blood in the lake. "You idiot!" he screamed and dove in after him.

"Where is he?" asked a woman in purple cloak; it was Kouseki-sama. "I told you to bring him here. So where is he?"

The two men in front of her didn't answer; they just looked down at the floor knowing that Kouseki wasn't a person to play with. The doors suddenly opened and two other men came in holding a child between them. It was Naruto. He had cuts and bruises all over his body and they weren't healing properly. Kyūbi hadn't healed Naruto at all, not even once! And when Naruto had tried to ask him why he couldn't get in contact with him.

"Hello," said Kuoseki and smiled at Naruto who shivered when he saw her smile. "Isn't it time to cooperate? I think that you don't want to get punished again, right?"

Naruto looked at her with dull eyes and he was trying his best to not scream out in pain.

"I wish that I didn't have to punish you, but those who_ listen_ won't have to get punished, and those who _don't_ listen_ will_ get punished. I'm sure you understand this," Kouseki continued as she smirked at Naruto. She didn't mean a thing about not liking to punish people.

Naruto just looked at her. If he answered he knew that he would get punished again . . . and again . . . and again. He nodded at last.

"Good, now then . . . you've been without food for two weeks. You must be hungry. I have some food with me and if you'll just cooperate this time by answering the questions we ask, you'll get as much food as you want," she told Naruto who clenched his wounded fists as he bit his lip; it was coming,

"Will you cooperate?" she asked as Naruto prepared himself for what was coming next.

"No . . ." he whispered and Kuoseki's face stiffened.

"There is a reason to why humankind was born with a brain instead of a stone in their heads . . ." she said under her breath.

She stood up and looked at the two men on each side of Naruto. "You know what to do," she said as Naruto closed his eyes.

"AAAAAAH!"

Minato was swimming down to the bottom of the lake. The deeper he got the higher got the pressure in his ears but he also could feel Jiraiya's chakra more clearly even if it was very weak.

There was only darkness in front on him, but then he saw something at the bottom of the lake and his eyes widened in shock.

"Jiraiya-sensei!" he tried to scream, but only bubbles came out, and he could feel his eyes and lungs burning.

Mianto saw that Jiraiya had five large spears sticking out from his body, piercing right through his lungs . . . stomach . . . and heart. As Minato reached him, tears leaked out, mixing in with the water.

He was afraid to even touch his sensei, but he had to get him up to the surface. He grabbed Jiraiya under his arms so that his head was resting on Minato's chest. Minato kicked off the bottom and tried to reach the surface as fast as possible. He didn't know for how long Jiraiya had been under water, but he just hoped that it wasn't too late.

_Hold on! _he thought desperately, as he felt that he didn't have any air left.

Minato's face finally broke the surface, inhaling a big gulp of air. He made sure that Jiraiya's face also was above the surface so he could breathe as well; if he still was breathing, that is. He just hoped with all his heart that it wasn't too late.

He walked with Jiraiya in his arms to the edge of the shore, and laid Jiraiya on his stomach so he could remove the spears. He was shaking during the whole time as he removed them. He then checked Jiraiya's pulse and froze: he couldn't feel any.

Minato turned Jiraiya on his back as he felt the tears streaming down his checks. Jiraiya's throat was smashed, making it impossible for him to breathe, and the spears had gone right through his body so there was no chance in hell that he would be alive.

"Jiraiya . . . sensei . . ." Minato whispered. "Please be alive . . .!" he continued as he tried to heal the injuries on his sensei, but he wasn't as skilled in medical jutsu as Tsunade was. "Jiraiya-sensei!" he shouted, still not believing his former sensei was dead.

He worked fervently to get a pulse on Jiraiya but he already knew, deep down inside that it was too late. He couldn't just let him die like this; he had to try to save him!

"You can't just die on me, sensei!" Minato said loudly, but not screaming.

This was too much for him. His parents died when he was little, Obito died at the age of twelve, his wife died during Naruto's birth, Naruto had been gone for two weeks, and now Jiraiya, his former sensei was dead.

"NO!" Minato finally screamed out, not caring if anyone heard him.

He had to get Jiraiya's body back to Konoha so they could bury him properly. It was the least he could do for his sensei. Even though Minato wanted to find Naruto, but he had to get Jiraiya back, he just had to. This was too important to ignore.

He lifted his sensei up and held him over his shoulder. He suddenly glowed yellow and then he disappeared into nothing.

The day Minato got back with Jiraiya to Konoha was a day he never would forget. When Tsunade found out what had happened she had cried so much that not even Minato could console her. She had lost Orochimaru and her sensei, the Third Hokage Sarutobi, her brother, her fiancée and now Jiraiya too.

"He promised me that he would come back alive . . ." Tsunade said to Shizune, Sakura and Minato who were in her office at the moment.

She was lying with her head on the desk; her eyes red from crying, and a bottle of sake was in her hand as well. "But he broke that promise . . . that bastard!" She threw the sake bottle across the room and it nearly hit Shizune who ducked at the last minute.

"I know that you're upset Tsunade, but we have to prepare for the funeral," said a sad Minato who tried his best to not cry in front of the people around him. He was trying hard to be strong for everyone, and not to show emotion, but it was hard.

"I know that you don't want to be the one to examine his body, so I and Shizune have already done it," said Sakura, as tears streamed down her cheeks like rivers. "He had been dead for nearly a week when Minato found him."

At those words Tsunade cried even more and Minato stepped forward to console her again. He hugged her tight as she cried into his shoulder.

"I can't believe that he actually left me . . ." she said between the sobs. "He was supposed to die after me . . ."

Minato couldn't keep himself from crying anymore and let the tears fall. Sakura and Shizune couldn't see his tears because his back was turned to them. Tsunade was a bit surprised when she felt other tears fall on her cheeks. She looked up at Minato and could see that he was crying, but his face held no particular emotion. He was only wearing a deep and confused frown.

"I'll miss him too," Minato finally said. "He was a great sensei . . .and friend."

Tsunade sighed; their beloved Jiraiya was gone . . . forever.

The funeral was held later that day and many people in Konoha were there to say goodbye for the last time. They had lost a very precious person . . . a sensei . . . a friend . . . a godfather . . . and a perverted idiot. But he had been loved.

Minato smiled a sad smile when he thought about all of Jiraiya's visits to the hospital because of his fights with angry women. But those were just memories. That was all he had left of his former sensei now. He _was_ gone.

For Tsunade this was like the funerals for her boyfriend Dan and brother Nawaki. It was like time was repeating itself for her, and she hated it!

_It's just not fair!_ She thought.

Everyone who was at the funeral was wearing black. Just like at Asuma's and the Third Hokage's funeral, they had brought white roses to put on the grave in front of a picture of Jiraiya.

"Shizune . . ." Minato began, standing next to her, looking wistfully at Jiraiya's picture.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" she asked and looked at Minato who was still starting at the picture of his sensei.

"How is Tsunade? How is she taking this? I was with her when she found out, like you remember, but I haven't talked to her since then," Minato said.

Shizune smiled a sad smile. "She isn't taking it very well, I'm afraid," answered Shizune. Minato looked at her with sorrow filled eyes. "She's always drinking sake and she isn't listening to anyone . . ."

Minato sighed. "You can't talk to her at all . . .?" he asked.

"No, I'm not even able to catch her attention when I'm in the same room with her," said Shizune. "But Tsunade-sama isn't what worries me the most . . ." she continued as Minato looked at her with a frown. "I'm worried about Naruto. His reaction when he finds out . . ." she couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

Minato looked away from her as he felt a chill run down his spine. How _was _Naruto going to react? He hadn't thought about that. From what he knew from Jiraiya and own experiences, Naruto was very fond of Jiraiya and saw him as a grandfather figure. He didn't even know that Jiraiya was his godfather . . .

_Damn it all! _he thought.

Minato turned around and walked away from Shizune and the other people who were very close to Jiraiya . . . as Kakashi, Konoha 11, all the Jounin and ANBU . . . there were many people there to say goodbye, and many of them looked at Minato when he walked away from them towards the Hokage tower.

Three men and one woman in a black cloak were moving at high speed towards a large building in an abandoned city.

"Why are we here? I mean what the bloody hell is the point?" asked a grey-haired thin man with a huge sword on his back. "Is there a meaning to this at all?"

"Of course there is stupid, why else would Sasuke-kun bring us here!?" answered the black-haired woman with glasses and blood red lipstick on her lips.

"I'm not stupid! I just wanna know why we're here," the grey-haired man snapped back. "Bitch . . ." he cursed under his breath.

A sigh. "Stop it," said a black-haired teen with black eyes that flashed to red for a moment; Uchiha Sasuke. When Sasuke had spoken the woman shut it immediately as the grey-haired man sent him a glare that could kill.

They continued on for a while and then Sasuke suddenly stopped, as did the rest of the group.

"Why did we stop?" asked the grey-haired man with a tired expression on his face. "Are we going to eat?"

"Shut it, Suigetsu," hissed the black-haired woman.

"No you shut it Karin," replied the man, Suigetsu, as he sent her a glare similar to the one he had given Sasuke eariler.

"Enough. If you don't want me to slit your throats, be quiet and follow me," said Sasuke without looking at them.

He started to walk and Suigetsu, Karin and the third man followed him. They walked in silence for a while and then Sasuke stopped again. They were in front of a large door, which was partially open.

"What's inside there?" asked Suigetsu raising an eyebrow. Sasuke ignored him and Karin sent him a glare.

Sasuke opened the door and went inside and once again they walked in silence. After a while they entered a huge room with holes in the ceiling and the walls. It was empty except for pieces from the ceiling, which laid on the floor and two men in the middle of the room. They were wearing white kimonos and it was decorated with green and yellow flowers. One of the men was grey-haired and very old while the other was a brunet who was quite young.

"You came," said the old man and looked at Sasuke through thick glasses. "I thought that you wouldn't."

"I've only come here to hear what you have to say," answered Sasuke with an emotionless expression on his face. "Do you or do you not have the information I need?"

"We do have information . . ." said the young man. "But what do you want to know? We already know that you want to know about Uchiha Itachi."

"I want to know _where_ he is," said Sasuke and Suigetsu who stood on Sasuke's right smiled, he knew that if these men weren't going to answer, he was going to have some fun.

"His current location, his organisation's location or something else?" asked the young man and Sasuke understood that they were just asking these questions so they could hold them longer and provoke them.

"His current location," said Sasuke and felt that Suigetsu was about to snap any minute if this slow conversation were going to continue.

"Fire Country," said the old man and Sasuke sighed.

"Where in Fire Country?" he asked and locked his glare with the young man's.

"We don't know," said the young man with a little smirk. "But what we do know . . . is that they are looking for something very dear to them."

"What can that be?" asked Sasuke again.

"They are looking for a person whom they lost," said the old man and Sasuke heard Suigetsu clenching his fists.

"And who is this person?" asked Sasuke and thought that if he could find this person, he would sooner or later find his brother Itachi.

"A Konoha ninja," said the old man again and Sasuke blinked for the first time.

_A Konoha ninja? _he thought. "Who?"

"A certain Uzumaki Naruto. And we know that you know him," said the young man and smirked again. Sasuke clenched his fist without thinking.

_Naruto? They are still after __Kyūbi__ I see, _he thought again and sighed. _I'm surprised that Naruto's still alive, that idiot._

"But what has caught our attention the most is something more terrifying for other countries than Fire Country," said the young man as Sasuke continued to look at him.

"I'm not sure if you've heard about this name before but if you have . . . you should be very careful not to come anywhere near Konoha again . . ." said the old man with a very serious glare towards Sasuke. "Because this man is named Namikaze Minato."

_Namikaze Minato . . . _thought Sasuke. He knew that he had heard it somewhere before, but where?

"In other words," continued the old man. "Konoha's Yondaime is once again alive."

Sasuke's eyes visibly widened and his companions were also very shocked. The Yondaime? But he died nearly sixteen years ago.

"The Yondaime of Konoha is dead, there is no chance that he can be alive," said Karin from behind Sasuke.

"But this is true my dear," said the old man. "So in total, we have information about three things that I think would catch your attention as it did with ours," continued the man.

"Three? You've only mentioned two; about Uchiha Itachi and the Yondaime of Konoha," said the third man in Sasuke's group. He was pretty tall and muscular; his name was Jugo.

"Yes, Uchiha Itachi is one thing, the Yondaime of Konoha is the second thing and the third thing is the about the organisation Tsuwamono and their capture of Uzumaki Naruto. Why do you think that we even bothered to mention this Uzumaki's name if he weren't a more important part of this conversation," said the young man and sighed.

"What's so important about Tsuwamono?" asked Suigetsu. "I mean, I'm sure that they are just some stupid guys playing cool."

"You have a point there but they are also very dangerous," said the young man. "They took Uzumaki Naruto nearly two weeks ago. They were able to kidnap him when the Yondaime was in the _same_ house as him," said the old man and Karin frowned as Suigetsu rolled his eyes.

"So you're telling us that they were able to kidnap a person who was . . ." began Suigetsu.

"In the same house as the Yondaime himself," interrupted Karin as she had a thoughtful look on her face and Suigetsu glared at her.

"That's impressive," stated Sasuke and his clenched fist was once again hanging like normal along his side. "You shouldn't underestimate them," he said as he looked at Suigetsu from the corner of his eye, Suigetsu shrugged his shoulders.

"Do you have anything more to tell me?" asked Sasuke and looked at the old man instead of the young. "Or is this meeting over?"

"There is one more thing that you should be aware of," said the old man. "Uzumaki Naruto is in the body of a three-year-old now. Akatsuki tried to extract him but it was a failure. Being stuck in a three-year old's body was the result."

_So he escaped, _thought Sasuke and smiled for himself. _Seeking danger and then he gets his ass kicked before he got away from there. It's sounds just like Naruto._

Sasuke made a slight bow and turned around to leave, as did his comrades.

"Wait . . ." said the old man, "I have to warn you young Uchiha." Sasuke looked at him with confused eyes, as did the rest of the people in the room, even the young man. "Don't use Uzumaki Naruto to get to your brother, it'll only make things worse for you."

The old man turned around and left with the young man behind him. Sasuke looked after the men and Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo looked at their leader with curious eyes. Sasuke finally moved and left the building together with his comrades.

_Well, this was a productive trip after all. I now have gained some very useful information. This is just getting better and better__, _thought Sasuke and smirked.

Minato was in the Hokage tower in Tsunade's office. He was looking in some drawers, trying to find something, but he only found documents, mission scrolls, pencils and sake bottles. He couldn't find what he was looking for.

"Where is it?" he said as he continued to look through the office. "I'm sure that it is here somewhere. I'm sure this is where I left it . . ."

"Looking for this?" asked a female voice and Minato turned around to see Tsunade in the doorway.

She had a completely black kunai in her hand. It looked just like a normal kunai but it was three times as small and attached to a necklace, so it was like a pedant. "I found it before I left for the funeral."

"Tsunade . . ." Minato said in surprise, looking at the woman in front of him. She was still very sad about Jiraiya's death, but also furious because Minato had hidden this from her. "Wha . . ."

"I w-was the one who gave this to J-Jiraiya. How come y-you have it?" she asked in a very calm way between her sobs. It was too calm to be Tsunade and that scared Minato.

"He . . ." begun Minato, but when he saw Tsunade gaze he understood that she wasn't completely sober. "Tsunade, have you been drinking again?"

"You're avoiding the question," she answered.

Minato gulped, she was very serious. "I . . ." Minato closed his eyes for a bit. "After Jiraiya's death that necklace showed up in my hand. It's a key," he explained, as Tsunade looked at him with a frown. "The key to a scroll that contains another key . . ."

"What are you babbling about?" Tsunade demanded to know.

"Jiraiya made that pendant to a key. _Before _I died I gave him a scroll with a certain key that would help Naruto with Kyūbi if it tried to break lose. He was the keeper to that scroll, and I told him to give the scroll to Naruto when he thought it was fitting, but since he's dead now . . ." Minato sighed at the thought. "Since he died he couldn't be the keeper anymore. My guess is that he planned to give Naruto or me that key . . ." he pointed at the pendant. "So one of us could be the new keeper. I guess that he chose Naruto, but since Naruto is so little, the closest relative to him would be the new keeper."

"A key to strengthen the seal on Naruto's belly?" asked Tsunade. Minato nodded. "I see . . ."

"Please Tsunade . . . I'm leaving the city again to look for Naruto but I have to have that pendant," Minato told her. Tsunade glared at him. "If something has happened to him because of Tsuwamono I need that pendant to get to the other key."

"Why this pendant? You just have to summon the scroll," Tsunade told him. Minato could tell that she had been drinking a lot.

"The one who summons the scroll has to have that pendant around their neck," explained Minato. "You can only summon the scroll when you wear that pendant. Without it, you can't use the words or hand seal to perform the summon."

"Why can't I keep it while you go look for Naruto?" asked Tsunade glaring at him like daggers.

Minato sighed as he closed his eyes again. "If the seal has been weakened when I find Naruto, I have to seal Kyūbi again with that scroll. If I don't use that scroll, I have to use _Shiki Fūjin _again and you know what that means . . .."

That did it for Tsunade, she want Minato to live, not die.

It was her turn to sigh. "Fine . . . take it, but promise that you'll bring it back to me. You can have it as your property, but I want to know that you still have it when you get back."

Minato smiled and nodded. Tsunade went over to him and handed the pendant over. "Be careful . . ." she said as he left the office and ran to his house to change clothes.

He got to the house and changed into civilian clothing. He didn't want people in the other villages to know that he was the Yondaime Hokage. He put the pendant around his neck and after that he left alone, without ANBU this time.


	16. A month

**Chapter Sixteen: A Month**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

A month had passed since Naruto's disappearance. Only two weeks ago Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sannin, had died. Minato had been away from Konoha for nearly two weeks now. Yesterday he had met this man who called himself Subeta, and he was a Tsuwamono member.

Minato was currently sitting on a tree branch a few metres above the ground. He was leaning against the trunk thinking about the previous day when he met Subeta. Normally he would have been looking for Naruto, but he was just sitting there in the there, waiting . . .

_Minato was running through the forest __that__ was in Fire Country __leading up__ to the Valley of the End. He had been running for thirteen hours __straight__, without eating and sleeping so he was really hungry and exhausted. But he hadn't time to rest; Naruto had been gone for a whole bloody month. _

_He came out __of the forest and __into a glade and there he saw a man dressed in light yellow. He was just about to run past the man when a huge plant attacked him. He jumped up in the air, made a back flip and landed seven metres away from the man and the plant, which __was __next to the man._

"_Get out of my way," Minato __told him, looking__ at him with calm eyes._

"_Not until I have spoken with you," said the man __smirking as he raised__ an eyebrow. "You're not in a hurry are you?" _

_Minato sighed. "Apparently not," he answered._

"_Good, 'cause I got something to say to you," continued the man as Minato listened to him. "__We know that you're trying to find him__ . . .__"_

"_Find__ who?" asked Minato __feigning__ confusion __to get more information__._

"_Don't play dense. We know that you've been looking for our organisation, who's taken someone precious from you. You've wanted to know our current location for over a month now. Isn't that right, Yondaime-sama?" the man asked._

_Minato felt his stomach __twist__. This man __must belong with__ Tsuwamono. _Somehow, they know I'm looking for Naruto, but this may be my best chance to get the information I need to find him, _he thought._

"_And __what is your__organis__ation called?" asked Minato, crossing his arms as he looked the man in the eyes with a gaze that could kill._

"_Tsuwamono. I would be shocked if you didn't __already __know that," the man answered him._

_Minato smirked. "Actually, you're right. I _did_ already know that. How do you know that I'm looking for someone?" He asked._

"_Kouseki-sama told us, of course. She could 'feel' a connection between the kid and you, and put the pieces together that he's important to you to come after," the man told Minato._

"_Then you should know that I'm going to do whatever it takes to find him and get him back," Minato answered. "I'm going to start by asking you thi, and onlys once: tell me where he is."_

_The man laughed. "You really think I would just tell you, just like that?"_

"_Well, if you were a man of any intelligence and valued your life, you would have told me. But since it seems like neither applies to you-" Minato didn't finish. _

_He suddenly __felt that there were two more __people__ hiding in the forest, so when three kunai __came hurdling towards__ him and the plant attacked at the same time, he avoided them with ease. _

_A woman and another man had been hiding in the trees and were now showing themselves._

"_He __doesn't look that strong,"__ said the __woman, giving Minato an appraising look__. "Do we really need three people to take care of him?"_

"_I think you know why, Puvanta-san," answered the other man who had been hiding with her. "You know that he's a Hokage, right?"_

"_Yeah, yeah__ . . .__ and since you guys aren't doing anything__ . . .__" Puvanta jumped up in the sky and formed a cross with her body, "I guess I'll do the first move!" __She moved so quickly__ that Minato barely avoided her kick. Puvanta had literally smashed her right leg into the ground, __creating a little crater__. _

_She wasn't as strong as Tsunade or Sakura, but she could hit as hard as Gai._

_Minato __ducked__ when she tried to kick him again. She missed but she smiled and Minato's eyes widened. He looked behind him but it was already too late. There was a clone of Puvanta and Minato guessed that the clone could hit as hard as the real woman._

_The clone's fist connected with Minato's jaw and sent him flying over thirty metres across the glade and into the forest._

"_You're supposed to be a Hokage! Show me what you got!" screamed Puvanta and smiled at him as the earth clone disappeared._

_Where Minato had landed were only tree branches and mud. Minato himself was gone._

"_As you wish__," Minato __said from behind Puvanta who turned around, surprised__._

_Minato now stood face to face with her. __She quickly recovered and tried to hit him__. _

_Minato caught her fist and pulled it down to the ground __as he gave her a well-aimed kick__ at her exposed side. When Minato's leg hit its target several bones were broken. Puvanra screamed in pain__. The kick sent her flying through several trees, and when she finally landed, she was out cold._

"_That was me being generous. If you don't tell me where that child is right now, I won't be so kind," Minato said with deadly fury._

"_We can't tell-" __began the man who had appeared with the woman__._

_He stopped when Minato disappeared from his spot and __re-appeared behind his leader._

"_You __will__ tell __me if you value your life and lives of your comrades. I'm not playing games with you!" Minato said angrily. "This is your last chance!"_

"_No-" began the man. _

_Minato then proceeded to grab the other man's arms pulling them behind his back and putting one foot on his back, rending him motionless. _

"_This is your last warning," Minato said to the leader as he pulled the man's arms more and more. The leader just stared at them. _

"_I won't tell you," the leader answered. "You will not be allowed to leave here, as long as I'm alive."_

"_In __other words, you don't care __at all what happens to your__ comrades?" asked Minato as he pulled the man's arms even more. __They were close to breaking now__. Pain shot through his arms and back. "__We'll see about that__ . . .__" __Minato said __as he continued to pull the man's arms as he screamed in pain._

"_AAH!"_

Minato thought back at that moment and gritted his teeth. He had been harsh, not as harsh as he could have been though. He was doing it for Naruto though. But then he had been careless . . .

_The leader stood there in silence at the scene in front of__ him, and then he looked away. _

_Minato noticed the __emotionless face he had__. Minato glared at him for not responding to his comrades and __turned his attention back towards the man he was torturing__._

_He pulled very hard and __a popping sound__ was heard. The man screamed in pain as his shoulders were dislocated, __and his arms broken__. When the sound was heard the leader looked at his comrade with an __unreadable__ expression._

"_So, __what's it going to be?"__ asked Minato __as he continued to pull on the man's already dislocated shoulders.__ "__Are you going to tell me what I want to know,__ or do I have to damage his body even more?"_

_The man didn't answer as Minato pulled even harder on the man's arms._

"_AAH!" screamed the man again and held back tears, which threatened to fall. _

_Minato sighed. He didn't particularly enjoy doing this, but he had to find his son! He looked over at the emotionless leader__. Was he really so coldhearted? Would he let his comrades suffer __and die just to keep Minato from finding where Naruto was being kept__? __Maybe Naruto was close and that's why they stopped him here__ . . ._

_Minato continue to torture the man in front of him. He had to find Naruto, no matter what! _

_The man continued screaming and threw his head back as he did so._

"_Please Subeta!" screamed the man as Minato looked at the emotionless leader who he now knew as Subeta. "__Tell him!"_

"_No, I won't. It's an order from Kouseki-sama," answered Subeta._

_Minato looked over at him with no visible emotion but inside he was shocked. He knew that people could be cruel, but this was just ridiculous. _

_Subeta just looked back at him and Minato had noticed that the more pain he caused his comrades, the more Subeta seemed to enjoy it. What __the bloody hell__ is this man's problem? _

_Psychopath was the word that came to mind__ . . ._

"_You're enjoying this, aren't you," asked Minato __and it wasn't a question._

_Subeta smirked in reply. "Well . . . why would I care about people I hardly know__?" he asked as he shrugged his shoulders. "I only just met them before we headed out to stop you."_

_Minato decided to let the man under him go. Subeta obviously wasn't going to talk and it seemed pointless to torture the man further. As he did so, he gave him a chop to the neck, rending him unconscious__. _

"_You are crazy," Minato said to Subeta who looked at Minato with nothing but a smile on his face. "They are humans."_

"_What's your point?" retorted Subeta. "You didn't seem to mind torturing him ruthlessly, did you?"_

_Minato didn't answer. Subeta was right. He didn't mind very much hurting these people in order to find his son. However, he did have limits He wasn't willing to kill them outright._

"_I may be ruthless, but I'm not as cruel as you are. You're laughing at your friends who suffered terrible pain. What kind of person would do that?" Minato told him, glaring at him. _

"_You got a point there. I like pain. Is there something wrong with that?" asked Subeta and Minato glared at him again. "This is a very nice conversation, but I'm afraid that it has to end here and now . . ." he said as he smiled._

_Minato knew that something was going to happen. He was right. __Suddenly, he couldn't move his body, no matter how much he tried._

_What the bloody hell, he thought as he tried to move again._

"_You noticed," said Subeta an evil smile played on his lips. "When you threw Puvanta, my dear little plant sneaked up behind you and placed her poison in you," he smiled even wider as Minato slapped himself mentally for not being more careful._

"_It takes some time for the poison to start working and when it does it paralyses the victim. You wont be able to move for a couple of hours at least . . .and maybe you won't be able move at all, because I might kill you before the poison stops," said Subeta._

_Minato looked at him with both rage and worry. If he didn't get out of this soon, he won't be able to save Naruto. _

"_Let me go," said Minato through clenched teeth since he couldn't open his mouth._

_Subeta's smile widened even more. "In your dreams, maybe . . ." he answered._

_After that everything went black for Minato._

Minato sighed. When he had woken up, he found himself in a tree and still couldn't move his body. That was what he was waiting for; he was waiting for the poison to stop working.

Gradually, he was able to move his head and arms but not his legs. He cursed several times at himself for his stupidity. He was supposed to be Hokage and he fell for something that easily. He had been dead for far too long, he supposed.

"Naruto . . ." he sighed and closed his eyes. "I will find you . . ."

Minato waited another three hours and after that the poison was gone. He opened his eyes again which had been shut during the whole time of waiting. He checked to see if he could move all of his limbs and then he jumped down to the ground.

Minato felt a bit dizzy at first but it soon disappeared. He idly wondered where Subeta was, and why he didn't kill him. But no matter, he felt like he was close to Naruto now, and was ready to continue the search. And if Subeta came across his path again, he'd regret it.

He started to run and the further he got, the more confident he felt. So he ran faster and faster until he was running at top speed again.

When Minato had run about a two miles he came to the same glade again. He came to the middle of the glade before he stopped. He looked down at the ground and gulped.

In front of him were the bodies of Subeta's comrades. The woman, Puvanta, had a hole through her chest. The other man, who Minato had tortured and who's name he never knew, had all his limps ripped off and had obviously bled to death.

Minato looked at the two of them and felt sick to his stomach. Even though he had seen a lot of dead bodies during fights and war, he still hated to see this. That leader, Subeta must have finished the job. How anyone could do that to his or her comrades was beyond Minato's comprehension. He now felt bad that he had hurt them so much, only to end up like this.

_Crack_

A twig was broken into two.

Minato turned around and at first saw nothing. Moments later, Subeta showed himself again.

"I see that you're up," he said and looked at Minato with an emotionless face again. "I thought that you would show up sooner or later. I have to admit that you're a quick healer. That poison shouldn't have stopped working quite yet."

"I guess I was lucky," Minato answered, feeling very angry with this man for his cruelty. "Why didn't you just finish me off earlier?"

"I wanted to have some fun with you. I don't get to fight Hokage's every day, you know. It would be quite embarrassing if word got out that I killed the Yondaime so easily, don't you think?" Suberta answered, smirking at him.

Minato was furious. This man was really asking for it. "I am so sick of hearing your crap! You're cruel, vile and pathetic. I was careless before, but I won't fall for your tricks again! If you don't tell me where you're keeping the child, I swear, I will kill you!"

Subeta laughed. "I'm not telling you a damn thing. So kill me! If you can . . ."

That did it for Minato. He was going to show that bragging idiot, just why he was made the Fourth Hokage. As he started to run towards him to attack, he noticed that the glade around him began to change into plants of all kinds: Exotic flower plants, which Minato guessed had poison, since they looked similar to the one that had attacked him earlier, ivy type plants and long, slender plants that Minato had never seen before.

During all of this, Subeta had seemingly transformed and blended into to the surroundings, disappearing from view.

"Well, this is going to make things interesting," Minato said to himself, as he looked around for Subeta. Suddenly, the exotic flower plants attacked him. Minato knew he'd have to dodge them to avoid the poison. What was this guy, stupid? Like he'd fall for that again.

Minato dodged them easily and with agility, but then seemingly out of nowhere; kunai came hurdling towards him very fast. He used his teleportation jutsu to get safely away and re-appeared at the top of a nearby tree. He didn't see where the kunai had been thrown from, it had all happened so fast and he still wasn't used to fighting in battles. He had after all, been 'dead' for a while and he was a bit out of it . . .

This isn't good. I can't find this guy, and I'm running out of time. I have to find Naruto! Minato thought, as he surveyed the area again. "Subeta! Show yourself! I know you're out there! Come out now!" Minato shouted.

All that answered him was laughter that echoed through the trees, stones and bushes. This made Minato really angry. He thinks this is a game! I'll show him that this is no game! He hissed as he looked around for any trace of Subeta.

Fortunately, Minato had packed some of his specially made kunai. He took them out and began to throw them randomly around the field. He only had about a dozen of them and when he had thrown them all, the fun began. He made a familiar hand sign, and teleported out onto the field and rapidly moved between each kunai, searching for Subeta.

About halfway through the search, a vine-like plant attacked and caught Minato. It wrapped itself around him tightly and quickly, he couldn't move. "Damn it!" he cursed. The plant's grip around him tightened even more as he tried to break loose.

Subeta morphed out of the plant that was hiding him and came out to approach Minato to gloat triumphantly over him. "Well, well. What do we have here? You're really not that great for being a Hokage, are you?" he smirked.

Suddenly, Minato appeared behind Subeta, so they were back to back. Minato's left arm had a kunai at his throat. A puff of smoke was all that was left in the vines.

"Don't underestimate me, you bastard. You don't know what a fight is, if you think that this is all that I've got. I'm just getting started," Minato said menacingly.

Subeta was a bit surprised but then he soon recovered. "A Bushin, eh?"

"I marked this maze of a jungle with my kunai. Then using my transportation jutsu with my Bushin, all I had to do was sit back and wait for you to show yourself when you thought you had me," Minato explained.

Subeta clearly impressed, responded with, "Nice. But I won't be defeated so easily." With that, Subeta began to morph again, this time like leaves that withered and flittered away. All the other plants began to wither and fade as well, except the tall and medium slender plants. Subeta was gone again.

"This guy is really starting to tick me off," Minato said angrily as he was back to square one. "I don't have time for this!"

Subeta had meanwhile reappeared by a group of tall slender plants in the distance, drawing a leaf; he fused it with his chakra, turning it into a spear and threw it at Minato. When the spear left his hand he grinned and looked at Minato with an insane, killing glare. He thought that this was very amusing; it wasn't often that he got a living toy to play with.

Minato saw it coming at him, but still couldn't tell exactly where it had come from, he wasn't expecting that kind of attack He dodged it with ease, but soon he found more and more coming towards him very fast. At first, he barely dodged them, but soon he gradually began to see a pattern with them and how Subeta was using leaves to create the spears. Now it was getting easier to avoid them, and Minato noticed that they were increasing in speed after each throw.

Minato blinked and grinned. This guy likes long ranges attacks, eh? Well, I'll just move in closer for a short-range attack then and finish this off! Minato took out another kunai and rushed in to attack.

Minato lunged at Subeta with the kunai in his right hand, which Subeta dodged, and as he did so, he pulled a sword out from a tall plant next to him. It was a very long and elegant sword that was very sharp and had a green tint to it. It was very beautiful and would have been something to admire with reverence if it wasn't in the hand of such a disgusting person as Subeta. They clashed and dodged and slashed at each for a while, until Minato had enough. Performing a special jutsu, he cut off Subeta's right arm, just below the elbow, making him drop the sword, and ending the fight.

"AAH!" he cried out in pain.

Subeta held what remained of his right arm with his left hand and dashed to the medium-sized plants. Grabbing a group of plants, he tore off plant pieces, which he fused with his chakra to turn them into kunai that he began to throw at Minato.

"BASTARD!" shouted Subeta.

Sighing at this man's stupidity, Minato produced another clone, unknown to Subeta, and transported to Subeta's blind spot, the left side. The real Minato then appeared behind Subeta, catching him off guard, as he was too distracted by the clone, throwing kunai at 'it'.

Minato smirked as he gathered some chakra in his right palm. "Rasengan!" he shouted as he slammed the swirling sphere in Subeta's side.

Subeta went flying back twelve metres and landed painfully on his stomach. The force from Minato's Rasengan made him turn and flip several times over. Several cracks could be heard with each turn of his body as it hit the ground.

Minato still needed information from this creep, so he had aimed for a less vital area, but it had been enough to disable him completely.

Subeta was lying on his stomach, stunned with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. He was bleeding out heavily and even if he survived this, he wouldn't be any good as a ninja anymore. His body was too damaged and his bones were demolished forever.

"How?" he asked as he stared straight in front of him without blinking.

Minato teleported over to him, giving him a cold glare. He quickly sat on his back, taking his remaining arm and pinning it behind Subeta's back and placing his foot on his head, so he couldn't move. Subeta's other side, where he was hit, was practically disintegrated now.

Minato held a kunai at his throat and a small drop of blood tickled down to his shirt collar. "Easy," he answered. "I distracted you with my Bushin by having 'it' appear on your left, which is the weakest side. The human eye normally tracks things to the right. While you were throwing kunai at my Bushin, I had time to power up my Rasengan," Minato explained.

Subeta cursed himself, pain and humiliation evident on his face.

Minato then tightened his grip on Subeta's arm and pushed his foot down hard on his head, causing his face to be shoved into the dirt. "Now, you will tell me what I want to know, or I will kill you now. Where are you keeping Naruto?" he asked in deadly voice, that wasn't to be trifled with.

Subeta grunted in pain. "I'm going to end up dead no matter what . . ." he answered. "Either by you or Kouseki-sama . . . I'm under orders . . . What kind of shinobi do you think I am . . .?" he actually smirked at his own comment but the smirk was soon changed to an agonizing expression, as waves of pain, wracked his body.

Minato pressed harder on his head and the grip on Subeta's arm tightened even more turning it blue. "If you don't tell me, I will make sure you die a slow, painful death which I assure you, will be worse than anything this Kouseki could do to you. How does that sound?" Minato hissed at him.

Subeta shuddered and the sweat that was streaming down his face was blending itself with the blood on his throat and body. As much as he liked seeing others in pain, it was a different story when it came to himself, it was a very different story . . . "All I can tell you is . . . He is closer than you think . . . About five miles, in that direction . . ." he nodded his head in the said direction but after that he had a coughing fit and Minato could swear that he heard something break inside his body.

Minato was surprised at what Subeta had just told him. He didn't think that Naruto was being kept in Fire Country, right under his nose! In his shock, he released Subeta, but in that moment, Subeta grabbed Minato's kunai from his hand and cut his own throat. Blood splashed everywhere, including on Minato. Subeta then withered away along with the remaining plants, leaving the glade as it was before.

Minato looked at him in disgust and cursed himself as he clenched his fists_. Crap! He was my only source for information. I can only hope he was telling me the truth, but it's all I have to go on._ He quickly set out in the direction he was told. _Hold on, Naruto, I'm coming!_


	17. My heart

**Chapter Seventeen: My Heart**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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Minato was running like crazy. Subeta had pointed east and Minato was really pissed that he hadn't been abl to get more out of him, before the bastard had killed himself, but it was better than nothing. At least he knew now that Naruto was in Fire Country less than five miles from him. Now, he just had to find him . . .

He had run four of the five miles so far; it had only taken him barely six minutes thanks to his high-speed jutsu. However, he was reaching his limit. He had been out looking for Naruto for over two weeks since Jiraiya's funeral, and during that time he hadn't slept or eaten much, so he was getting weak. He was cursing himself now because he really needed those powers he'd lost by not eating or sleeping.

_I'm nearly there. I just need to find the entrance, or__ . . .__ one of them. I don't know how big this place is, _Minato thought as he finished those five miles.

Naruto was supposed to be somewhere close by here.

He looked around, trying to find genjutsus or simple traps. He noticed that there were a lot of genjutsus over this particular place and Minato sighed. He knew that when he broke the jutsus, he had to find Naruto quickly and avoid fighting as much as possible because of his weakened state.

"_Kai!"_ he shouted and slammed his hands together as he tried to stop his chakra flow.

Jiraiya was the one who taught him how to do this when he was trapped in a genjutsu and he was very grateful that Jiraya had been his sensei and friend.

Minato created a shockwave and he knew that if the wave hit a genjutsu it would break it immediately. He felt three genjutsus break at the contact. Unfortunately, that action took nearly all of his powers from him.

_Damn it,_ Minato thought when his vision was blurring. _I can't faint! I have to get to Naruto!_ He wasn't used to using this much chakra yet, he had to take this slowly, but that was easier said than done.

Just when he thought that he would faint and be embraced by darkness, all of the genjutsus had been broken. Minato panted heavily as he fell to his knees down on the ground.

"Oh Kami . . ." he said between pants. _I have to remember to not break several genjutsus at once when I've just come back to life, _he thought and smirked at the sarcasm.

Minato stood up and looked around. The surrounding had changed, and not just a bit. Before it was a green forest with pretty small trees and a glade not to far away. There had been a lot of stones around him in all kinds of sizes and he had stood next to a huge hill. Now there were huge trees around him and a very small brook. The stones were gone as was the hill. It was a plain landscape and it looked very beautiful.

_Why would they choose to keep their base here? _Asked Minato to himself as he tried to find something odd with the forest or the brook. He was looking for some metal or plastic that shouldn't be there.

He turned around and looked very closely at everything he saw, but he couldn't find anything unusual. This was driving him nuts. He had already used too much chakra and if he used much more he would pass out of exhaustion or maybe even die.

Minato closed his eyes for a brief moment and re-opened them very slowly. He closed them again as he took a deep breath and tried to gather some new chakra. Inhale . . . exhale . . . inhale . . . exhale . . .He stood like that for more than forty minutes without moving a muscle, breathing in and out as he looked at nothing in particular.

Suddenly, Minato opened his eyes and raised a clenched fist above his head and after that he slammed it down in the ground causing a light earthquake.

"Asari no Jutsu (Searching Technique)!", he yelled.

A huge blue chakra wave was created from the location where Minato's fist was connected with the ground. It worked like a radar. Whatever the chakra wave touched Minato felt it in his mind, revealing a picture.

Minato grinned when he noticed a metal door hidden beneath a tree only a few hundred metres away. He was once again panting very heavily but didn't care. He jogged over to the place where the door was and Minato noticed that it was well hidden. He looked at the tree, which was at least seventy five metres high and seven metres in diameter. And yet it was one of the smaller trees in the forest. He sighed as he looked at the tree with great annoyance.

Minato had barely looked at the tree for five seconds because after those five seconds the tree was no longer there, only a clenched fist. He had punched the tree in half. He wasn't thinking about his condition, the only thing on his mind was Naruto. He knew that he'd really used too much chakra, actually 'huge amount' would be more accurate.

He then used a fire jutsu to burn the roots away, and after that the whole metal door was visible for him. He took a deep breath as he opened the door with difficulty since his muscles were still in pain after using Asari no Jutsu (Searching Technique)_._

When he had opened the door, he saw a ladder descending so far down, he couldn't see where it ended; only that it was very dark. Minato understood that wherever Naruto was, he was deep underground. He sighed again as he started to climb down the ladder and after a short moment the darkness was his only company.

Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo were on the move. They were running and running and Sasuke wasn't even blinking as he stared in front of him with a nearly invisible smirk plastered on his pale face.

After the meeting he had with those two men, Sasuke hadn't said a single word; he had since been running very fast to get somewhere.

Suigetsu, Karin and Jugo weren't tired but they could feel the pain in their aching backs.

"Where are we going next?" asked Suigetsu to no one in particular. "Are we going to meet some other freaks?"

"Shut up you jerk!" hissed Karin who was running beside Suigetsu. "Didn't you notice the look on Sasuke's face when he heard about Uzumaki? That old man warned Sasuke that he shouldn't use Uzumaki to get to his brother. "

"So what? Do you really think that Sasuke's going to listen to that crap?" Asked Suigetsu with a smirk on his lips as he raised an eyebrow. "I bet he's going to find this Uzumaki and use him for just that purpose."

"Asshole," muttered Karin and knew that Sasuke had heard the whole conversation between them.

"We're nearly in Fire Country," said Jugo when a bird landed on his right shoulder. No one answered him; they just started to run faster.

Minato reached the bottom and it wasn't as dark as he had thought it would be. There were a lot of paths that were lit up by red torches to help with navigation, and to prevent blindness when returning to the surface.

He turned around and looked carefully for any sign of Naruto or guards. He couldn't see anything special, but he did notice that people had been walking where he stood not too long ago. He had three paths to choose from and he couldn't use anymore chakra to search for Naruto.

_Guess I'll have to do this the hard way . . ._ he thought.

Minato had barely taken one step forward before he felt someone's chakra behind him. He turned around very fast and crouched down. A man completely covered in black had been guarding the entrance and was now trying to attack Minato. He had a katana in his right hand and was trying to hit Minato by cutting and slicing in the air.

Minato noticed that he wasn't that great with the katana and when Minato ducked he took a step to the side and caught the man's head. He slammed the head into the wall and the man fell unconscious to the ground.

_And he's supposed to be a guard at this place, _Minato thought as he felt another human's chakra.

He took the unconscious man's katana and turned around.

It was another guard covered in black and before he could stab Minato, Minato used the handle of the katana and knocked the man out by hitting him in the head. He didn't want to kill if necessary.

Minato jumped over the fallen guards and started to run on the path. He came to a new crossing with right, left or to go back as options. He took the left path and started to run again. He knew that it was really insane to just run around in an unknown place, underground, and just to make things better this place was probably a maze.

He came to a new crossing and turned to the right this time. Just when he rounded the corner he saw three new guards and they had seen him.

_This is just great, _thought Minato as he ran forward.

He ducked under one of the men's katana, and punched him in the stomach so he collapsed on to the ground. The other two charged at him and when they were about to strike Minato ducked again and landed on his hands so he could use his feet. He kicked both of the men straight in the groin and they dropped their katanas, falling to the floor in agony.

Minato felt their pain. "Sorry," he said before he continued to the left at a new crossing.

He knew that it was a really low blow to do that but he had to. He turned right again and after that he turned left and met four new guards.

_It doesn't matter how many guards they have if they're like the other ones that I've already met, _Minato thought as two of the guards attacked him with Nunchakus in their hands.

Minato sighed, as he ducked again, but it seemed like these guards were better than the previous ones. They had stopped and one of them attacked Minato as the other one stepped back a step. Minato punched the attacker really hard in the face and broke his nose, after that he took one step forward, and then he noticed that the other men were attacking from behind. Minato jumped and turned a somersault backwards. He landed on the men's shoulders, knocking their heads together. They fell unconscious to the floor.

Minato looked at the remaining man from the corner of his eye. He felt the man shiver and before the man had time to react, Minato pinched a point in his neck and he fainted.

_They're getting better but not that much better. I wonder how strong the guards around Naruto are? _He thought, as he turned to the right in a new crossing.

Before long, Minato came to another crossing, but he continued forward this time and once again he met guards.

_This is really pissing me off! _He thought as he knocked the men unconscious with punches to their stomachs.

He continued forward and came to another new crossing._ This really is a maze, _he thought as he ran forward this time.

Minato met another guard and knocked him about without stopping, and continued running. He turned to the left in one crossing, no guards, he turned to the right in another one, no guards, he turned to the right again, no guards. He turned to the left two times again and finally met three guards. He quickly took out two of them but the third one was a hard one.

"This is as far as you go!" he said loudly as Minato just looked at him.

Minato pointed to something behind the guard and as stupid as the guard was he looked over his shoulder.

"I can't believe you fell for that," Minato said as he pinched his neck so he fainted. _These guys are __really__ pathetic, but somethinng tells me that they aren't fighting their best . . ._

Minato turned to the left and then to the right again. He noticed that he was panting heavily again, and his vision was a bit blurry. He stopped and leant against one of the walls to rest. He was getting exhausted by all this running. He shouldn't be moving at all, but he had to.

Minato stood against the wall for at least seven minutes before he started running again. He turned to the left in the next crossing and met two new guards.

He had regained a little of his chakra during that time, but it wasn't much. He knocked the two guards out with a punch to the head and another kick to the groin. As he turned to the left again he suddenly fell to his knees.

"Damn it . . ." he cursed when he couldn't stand up. _And I'm telling Naruto to watch his mouth; I'm not better myself. _

Minato had finally pushed himself over the limit. "Damn it all . . ." he hissed again. "To be dead and then come back to life is really a pain in the ass . . . I haven't regained my full powers yet . . ." he panted. "But I thought I'd be able to use my full powers again since I've been alive for over a month now . . . but somehow I can't seem to get them back completely . . ."

He just stood there for a couple of minutes doing nothing but panting. He was really tired, and he felt that something must be really wrong.

_Guess I have to talk with Tsunade when I get back with Naruto, _he thought as he straightened himself up and looked at all directions before he continued on.

Minato turned to the right in the next crossing, getting really tired of running. He felt that he just wasn't getting anywhere. It seemed like he was running in circles in a maze while people were watching him, just like a mouse in a cage.

Minato turned to the right again and running past another crossing, he continued forward. He continued going straight in the next crossing too and after that he turned to the left. He hadn't seen any guards for some time now. He was beginning to wonder where they could be.

Minato had run for a long time before he got to another crossing and he took that one to the left. He hadn't run for long before he came to a new crossing and took it to the left again. He then came to what he thought was a new crossing, but stopped. He had been here before; it was the same crossing he had gone through earlier.

_What the . . . I'm blonde and I'm stupid . . . _he thought and slapped himself mentally for being such an idiot. He was a Hokage and should know by now how to find people if he wanted to find them.

_This is just . . . _he froze as he felt something. _What was that_?

Minato shivered out of fear. It wasn't because of someone coming. He felt Naruto's chakra fading away very slowly and painfully. He was being tortured.

_Naruto! _He screamed in his head and began running as fast as his legs would let him.

He turned to the left in a new crossing and found four guards standing in front of him. They were all wearing two katana each and Minato just hoped that these guys were as easy as the other guards he had met, but maybe these guys would fight properly and use all of their abilities.

Two of the guards disappeared and re-appeared behind Minato, so that he was surrounded. Minato looked at the guards behind him and then at the guards in front of him. He sighed as his left eye twitched in annoyance. He had to get to Naruto no matter what, and these guys weren't helping!

"You've only gotten this far 'cause we allowed you to," said one of the men as Minato looked at him. "The guards you met were being ordered to let you pass easily."

"And why is that?" asked Minato looking at the other guards behind him from the corner of his eyes.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" answered the man, smirking at Minato.

Minato frowned a bit. _What is going on_?

The two men behind Minato suddenly attacked with inhuman speed. Minato clenched his teeth and turned around just in time to stop a fatal cut from one man's katana. He held the katana with his one hand, which was now bleeding heavily. The other hand was behind the man's neck. With one little movement he could kill the man.

Minato didn't want to kill more people, but he didn't have a choice. He didn't have the energy for long drawn out fights in his weakened condition, or he could put himself at risk for death. He couldn't die. Not when he was this close to finding Naruto.

Minato closed his eyes as he broke the man's neck with help of the little bit of chakra he had left. The man fell dead to the ground, but before his body hit the floor, Minato was attacked again by the other man who had been behind him. Minato ducked down and caught the man's waist. He flipped the man over his own body, but the man landed on his feet.

Minato saw him land safety out of the corner of his eyes. These guys were better than the others, but still, they were holding back. Why?

There were still two men who hadn't attacked yet. They were just looking at the scene in front of them, unmoving. They had their arms crossed over their chest, looking like mere statues.

_Why aren't they doing anything? _Thought Minato as he threw a glance at the two of them. _They should also be attacking if they don't want me to pass._

Minato focused on the man in front of him, but he also made sure he knew where the other two men were. Just when he threw another glance at the men who hadn't yet attacked, the man in front of him threw four shurikan at him. Minato saw this and threw four shurikan himself which each collided with the other man's shurikan. They stood still for a moment, but then the man disappeared, as did the other two men. Minato's eyes widened as he felt their chakra. He hadn't enough time. One of the men appeared right in front of him and slammed his fist into Minato's chest. He felt the muscles around his heart spasm in pain.

Minato flew backwards and slammed into the opposite wall near the crossing. He gasped in surprise and pain.

_How did that happen!_?

"And you're supposed to be the Fourth Hokage?" said the man who had punched Minato in the chest. "I thought that you would be more of challenge than this. How disappointing," he said with a smirk.

Minato could only stare at him in response. He noticed that whenever he tried to move, it felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. He gasped in pain again, barely catching his breath, clutching his chest as the pain was so bad. He tried to calm himself down and closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them the men were gone again.

_Damn it, _he thought as he tried to locate the men, but it was easier said than done, because of the terrible pain in his chest.

"This isn't your day, huh?" asked one of the men as he appeared in front of Minato.

He took hold of Minato's throat and lifted him up in the air. Minato gasped and clenched his eyes shut in pain.

The man slammed Minato into the already cracked wall. Minato coughed up blood, which dripped down from his mouth onto the floor. He grabbed the man's wrist with difficulty and tried to get it away from his throat. It was getting harder to breathe and Minato's vision was getting hazy.

"Don't kill him quite yet," said one of the other men who had just appeared on each side of Minato. "We're not supposed to kill him ourselves, you know that."

"I know, but they didn't say anything about torturing him," answered the man who was holding Minato.

He suddenly felt an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"It doesn't matter if he loses an arm or something. He'll still be alive, right? And I don't think that he'll need any limbs at all when he gets to Kouseki-sama and the rest," the same man continued.

"Don't get too full of yourself, you bragging idiot," snapped the third man in a very raspy voice. "You can't even kill a mouse without using at least three different ninjutsu techniques on Jounin-level."

"Look who's talking," hissed the man who still held Minato's throat.

Minato struggled helplessly. He felt his legs go numb. His vision was starting to fade. He wasn't getting any oxygen and if the man didn't let him go soon he would be dead. Suddenly, Minato came up with a plan. He let his eyes roll back in his head as he let his arms fall to his sides and let his head loll forward.

The man who held Minato released him quickly. Minato fell down to the ground with a loud _bump._ A sharp pain went through his chest as he hit the ground, but he didn't move a muscle. He just lay on his side with eyes half open, not looking at anything in particular.

"You killed him . . ." sighed the man with the raspy voice. "This is just so great . . . What do you think Kouseki-sama will do to you now? Huh? She can do whatever she wants with whoever she wants! I think that we won't see you until we get to hell ourselves . . . if we ever do."

The men were looking down at Minato who continued to stare into nothing.

"What are we gonna do with the body? We can't leave it here, can we? Same with Goko," said the man who had 'killed' Minato and when he said 'Goko,' he looked and their dead comrade. "What do you guys think? Should we take him to Kouseki-sama or not?"

"Nah . . . why not dump it in the forest, it's easier that way," said the man who stood close to Minato's head. "Or . . . why not take him to the cells together with Goko? We can dump him in the room were all the other corpses are."

"Yeah, we could do that. She won't notice at first, but . . . what if she wants to see the body?" asked the man with raspy voice. "She'll definitely freak out if she finds out that we just dumped him there, well . . . she'll freak out if she ever finds out that we accidentally killed her pray. What are we going to do?"

"Whatever! We'll have to tell her about this so let's just leave him in the cells and when she asks where he is we just have to go get him," said man who had 'killed' Minato.

The others could tell that he was annoyed.

"Fine, but don't blame us when she kicks your ass," said the man with the raspy voice.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever . . ."

The man who hadn't talked much lifted Minato's body and slung him over his shoulder. He hung like a limp doll and bit his tongue so as not to scream out in pain. The burning pain in his chest wasn't pleasant.

The man who had 'killed' Minato lifted his dead comrade up and walked behind the guy who carried Minato. They walked for over thirty minutes before they stopped.

Minato had memorized the way they came since he may need to get away very soon.

"Here it is. Let's close the door and if we need to get him later, we can," said the man with the raspy voice.

The man who had been carrying Minato put him down on the cold stone floor. Minato heard a weak thud when they threw their comrade in there too, then he heard a door close behind him.

Minato's eyes shot open and he was met with a horrible sight.

There were hundreds of bodies inside the room that were mutilated, dismembered or abused. Separated limbs were all over the place and the entire room was covered in dried and fresh blood, but . . . everythinng looked faded as if it really wasn't there, but Minato didn't think about that.

_What the . . .? _thought Minato and felt his stomach tighten in disgust. He had to fight down the urge to vomit.

_What __kind of people are these__? _Minato thought again as he crawled towards the closest wall, to lean on it.

His head was throbbing like crazy and the chest pains had only gotten worse. For each heartbeat, he felt his life ebbing away. The muscles around his heart had been shredded; it was a miracle that he was even alive.

_Kuso . . . I'm not going to make it any longer!_

Minato felt like crying. He couldn't find Naruto, he couldn't move, and his life was ebbing away. He wanted see his only son, just . . . only one more time before it was too late. It would be more than enough.

_What am I? The worst father in the world or even the worst person in the world? I couldn't even save my own child . . . _thought Minato as he finally reached the wall. He leant up against it, pain etched in his face.

"AAH!" someone screamed, not too far away. Minato froze; even his heart skipped a beat.

Minato's eyes went wide in shock and disbelief of what he had just heard. He knew that scream . . .it belonged to Naruto. He tried to stand up but he fell back against the wall, his heart blaring in pain.

"I have to get to Naruto . . ." Minato said weakly as he tried to stand up again, but agonizing pain shot through his body.

He tried to keep his balance as he managed to stand up on shaky legs.

He was using the wall as support and since it was covered with dried blood, Minato got red and dark brown stains on his clothes. He shuffled forward as he tried to keep his balance _and _his eyes open. He was trying hard to not faint from the pain.

Finally reaching the door and trying to open it, Minato frowned. It was locked, of course.

_Kuso . . . _he thought, closing his eyes as he leant against the door.

Minato sighed. He knew that it was impossible, but he had to gather chakra. He noticed a tiny bone on the floor and lifted it up with difficulty. As he was crouching down, he saw that there was a keyhole on the door from the inside.

Minato smiled painfully as he filled the tiny bone with chakra. He then shoved the bone into the keyhole, and with the help of his chakra he created a perfect chakra key for the hole. He turned the chakra key around and a tiny click was heard. The door was unlocked. He opened it and used his body weight to move it so he could get out of the room. He coughed a couple of times, spitting out some blood onto the floor.

Minato was breathing heavily again, and he felt feverish, this wasn't good. He was supposed to bring Naruto back to Konoha, not get himself this badly injured. He cursed himself for his stupidity and crawled out through the door.

Suddenly, he heard another scream, sending shivers down Minato's spine. Something awful was happening to his son!

He once again stood up; his legs shaking like crazy. He leant against the wall as he tried to move forward in the direction that he had heard the scream come from.

It didn't seem that far away from the room Minato had been in, maybe only three rooms between them. Minato wished of all his heart that he would reach Naruto before anything else happened.

Minato shuffled past two doors before his legs couldn't make it any longer. He fell down on the hard stone floor, feeling himself break down inside. He actually fought back tears that were threatening to fall. He wasn't going to make it; he wouldn't be able to see his son again.

_It can't end like this! _He shouted in his mind as he slammed a fist into the floor. It hurt like hell in his chest but he couldn't care less about that right now, he only had Naruto on his mind. "It just . . . can't . . . end like . . . this . . ." he panted.

Minato was glad that there weren't any guards here, or else he would've already been dead. He moved towards the door where he knew the screams had come from and just before he got there, another scream was heard.

Minato closed his eyes as he felt another shiver go down his spine. It was a scream from a child, not just any child, but _his _child. It was filled with agony, sorrow, and despair.

_I'll save you Naruto. No matter what, _thought Minato as he managed to bring himself to stand in front of the door without leaning against anything.

Before he went any further he used a medical ninjutsu that would at least ease the pain. It help, but not bu much.

He looked at the door feeling very dizzy and hoped that he had at least a little chakra left so he could do this. He gathered chakra in his right palm creating the familiar swirling sphere that he was known for.

"_Rasengan!"_ shouted Minato in his mind as he slammed his right hand through the door in front of him.

The pressure from the Rasengan killed three men that were in the room. One remaining man, who was still standing, looked at Minato with wide eyes.

Minato was on the verge of losing consciousness, but he fought against it. Just then, his eyes caught something, which was chained to the wall. His eyes went wide as he barely recognized the tiny body that lay in front of him; the sight of it made Minato feel scared as hell . . .

He had found Naruto . . . at last.


	18. Trapped!

**Chapter Eighteen: Trapped!**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Minato had found Naruto, but it wasn't a pleasant sight. Naruto was so badly injured that Minato couldn't believe that he still was alive. What had they done to him?!

Naruto was like a skeleton; Minato could tell that he hadn't eaten since the day before he disappeared. His body was covered in dried blood all over. Nasty wounds were everywhere on his skin, some of which were old and the new ones were bleeding. The little remaining skin that didn't have wounds was purple and blue with bruises. His clothes were in shreds, but still covered his body.

Naruto was chained to a gray wall and no doubt had been in the same position for some time, since Minato could see his wrist bones. Minato could also tell that Naruto had broken ribs and his right leg was also broken as was his left arm. There were even some places on his body that had been burned to the point where no skin was left.

Naruto was in such bad shape, that Minato hardly recognized him. It was so painful to look at, but it was nothing compared to what Naruto felt. At the moment however, Naruto was unconscious, but he could still probably feel the pain just as much as if he had been conscious.

_Why didn't Kyūbi heal him_? thought Minato.

He looked around and noticed that there was still one man standing in the room. He was looking at Minato with both rage and fear.

"Release him at once!" Minato commanded him, fixing the man with a gaze that no one could ignore. "I don't want a fight you, so just do as I said," continued Minato, feeling the chest pains again, even though he had healed them a little with a medical ninjutsu.

"Why should I?" asked the man looking back at Minato, but not with the same anger in them. "He isn't going anywhere. Just 'cause you tell me to release him doesn't mean I will."

_A __cocky__ bastard, _thought Minato as he closed one eye in pain. "I don't have time for this, so I'm going to give you three choices to choose from: release him right now and then get the bloody hell out of here . . . you can die a painful death by my hands or . . . you can choose to just stand there while I release him and then after that . . .well . . .I don't think you want to find out . . ." threatened Minato between heavy breaths. He knew he was on borrowed time now.

The man just looked at him the same as before. "I'll release him, but after that, make sure that the two of you'll get out of here. Kouseki-sama and the others won't be pleased when she finds out that the kid's gone," said the man and walked over to Naruto with keys in his hands.

Minato was stunned into silence, since the man agreed to help him so quickly.

"You're speechless. What happened to the brave talk just a minute ago?" the man mocked Minato, who just narrowed his eyes back at him.

The man continued in a more serious tone. "I've seen what they did to this child, and that's something I never thought would happen in this building. I can torture men and even woman, but to see children like this . . ." The man sighed. "You and the kid should get out before I change my mind."

Minato watched the man as he unlocked the chains that were around Naruto's wrists. His hands fell to the floor since the chains weren't holding them up anymore. Naruto himself, still unconscious, fell into the man's arms like a lifeless doll. Then the man walked over to Minato with Naruto in his arms as Minato just stared at the man whose face he couldn't see, since he had a black mask over it.

"I won't forget this . . ." Minato told him as he took Naruto in his arms.

Minato stiffened visibly as he could feel Naruto's ribs and hipbones. He was nothing more than a skeleton covered with skin.

"You're . . . his father . . . aren't you?" asked the man as he saw Minato stiffen. Minato only nodded in response, holding Naruto close.

He had found his son, but this was not what he was expecting when he found him. If he only had been there to help Naruto when the Tsuwamono got there, maybe if only had stayed with Naruto a few more minutes . . . this wouldn't have happened.

"I remembered that he mentioned a certain Minato-sama when he had nightmares. But he stopped with that the week after the torturing began," explained the man.

Minato was a bit shocked to hear that. Naruto had thought about him? Maybe, when Minato was ready to tell Naruto who he really was, his father, maybe Naruto would understand . . .

"That would be me then, but as you said . . . I have to get Naruto out of here as fast and soon as possible," said Minato as he turned around to walk away. "Do you know a way out of here that's nearby . . .?"

The man noticed that Minato was having severe pain that obviously needed medical care, and quickly. "Follow me, but we have to make sure that we don't get caught. I'm already a dead man since I released the kid . . . Naruto, wasn't it?" said the man as he walked out of the room.

Minato followed him with Naruto in his arms.

They had only walked a few metres when Minato collapsed to his knees with one hand on the ground, and holding Naruto with the other. The man stopped and looked at Minato. He was used to torturing people so he didn't feel sympathy or anything for Minato, but he still walked over and helped him up on his feet.

"Are you sure that you can walk?" asked the man with an emotionless voice as he looked at Minato.

Minato looked back at him with a pale face and dark bags under his eyes, he looked like he had been poisoned.

"I can walk . . . just help me out of here . . ." answered Minato.

He didn't trust this man, but since he had released Naruto there was a chance that he would help Minato to get out, but he could also be tricking Minato and leading him into a trap or something. _But what choice do I have?_ He thought.

Suddenly Minato felt some strange chakra. It seemed to belong to more than twenty people. What was going on?

As Minato and the man walked into a huge room, Minato got his answer; he had been tricked.

In front of him stood twenty one men and women including the man who had led him there.

Minato sighed and leant against the wall behind him. He held Naruto close and prepared himself for the worst, but just then, a huge explosion was heard . . .

. . .a man in white and purple appeared.

An hour earlier, Sasuke, Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo were in Fire Country and they were moving as fast as always. Sasuke being in the lead, and the other three were behind him, trying to run as fast as their leader.

"We are closing in," Karin suddenly said. "I can feel huge amounts of different chakra. Seems like they have gathered in one specific place."

"How many?" asked Sasuke without looking at her, keeping his gaze forward.

"I don't know exactly, but it's more than fifteen people," answered Karin looking at Sasuke from the corner of her eye. "We should be there in a half an hour."

"Good, my back aches like hell," complained Suigetsu, grimacing in pain.

"It's not my fault that you carry that sword around. It's heavy and big, so what the bloody hell did you expect?" hissed Karin and glared at Suigetsu who glared back at her.

"Bitch . . ." he cursed under his breath as he shot murder glares at her.

"You'll never get it, huh?" said a deep voice and both Suigetsu and Karin shut it and looked at Sasuke who still didn't look at them. "Are you going to fight each other or with each other?"

None of them answered. They could feel Sasuke's murderous intent and it wasn't something to trifle with.

"Thought so," said Sasuke and silence met them once again as if none of them had spoken.

They were running in silence for another twenty minutes when Karin's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. She stopped, as did Sasuke, Suigetsu and Jugo. Suigetsu looked quizzically at her.

"We're going to meet the Yondaime of Konoha when we get there," she said as she stared at Sasuke's back and then at Suigetsu. "I can feel his chakra, and I'm a hundred per cent sure that it _is_ his chakra, because I've never felt such a strong chakra before."

_Yondaime__ . . ._thought Sasuke. _Could he be after Naruto too?_

"He must be there to get Naruto, so we'll have to make sure that we get to Naruto before he does," Sasuke answered.

He then noticed a crushed tree. _I can feel that chakra has been used here__ . . ._ Sasuke looked at the tree and saw that there was a metal door under it. _He's already inside. __If he has Naruto already, then I'll just take Naruto from him then__._

Sasuke jumped down through the door and his companions followed him. _It's time to find Naruto . . . and kill the Yondaime if necessary._

Konan looked at Pein, incredulous.

"You are serious . . .?" she asked and couldn't believe what she had heard. "You're really serious when you say that we're going to get that Jinchūriki . . .again?"

"Of course I am. We need him more than ever before. Since I lost one body in the fight against the Toad Sannin, we're weaker, and because of that, we need to get Kyūbi," answered Pein as he looked at the Akatsuki members who had gathered on his colonnade.

"So you want us to do what?" asked Tobi with a high-pitched voice that could have been an older Naruto's. "Go get him, extract him and say good night?"

"You're quite right, actually," answered Pein and looked at Tobi with his cold eyes. "We're going to get him, extract Kyūbi out of him and then of course . . . he'll die, so there is the good night."

Tobi looked at him with a dumbfounded look under his mask. A deep chuckle was heard in his throat. He had been right, and that was something new.

"I want Tobi, Itachi and Konan to go there," continued Pein. At this, they stepped forward, as Pein continued. "And I want you to get him here alive, you understand that? If anyone of you hurt him, I'll make sure to kill that person myself," he told them.

"Let the hunt begin."

Minato looked at the men in front of him and then at the man in white and purple. He recognized him as an Uchiha.

_This isn't good__ . . ._thought Minato as he fought to stay awake, but the chest pains had increased to an unbearable level. _I have to get out of here__ . . .__ but even if I did__ . . .__ there is no way I'll be able to get to Konoha__ . . .__ I have to get help from someone. _It was even hard to think now.

Sasuke stood in a large hole that went through the opposite wall from Minato. Sasuke activated his Sharingan, and as he scanned the room he saw Minato, who held a little human in his hands. Sasuke knew that it was Naruto, but still . . . he was a bit shocked to see his ex-team mate in that state. He was surprised that Naruto was even alive.

_He never gives up. When will he learn? _Thought Sasuke and looked away from Minato and Naruto.

He saw the men and women just below him and knew that they wouldn't be a problem.

Sasuke's next thought was, that if Naruto was here and been here for over a month, Akatsuki and Itachi could show up here. They were supposed to get Naruto at any price, and if Itachi came here, Sasuke wouldn't have to bother taking Naruto from the Yondaime.

He could also see that Minato was in pain of some kind . . . ah, it was chest pain. _They have been able to hurt him after all I see, _thought Sasuke again as Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo walked up behind him.

"Suigetsu . . ." said Sasuke with his calm voice as he locked his gaze with Minato's.

Suigetsu didn't even look at him but he listened. "Kill all of them together with Jugo," Sasuke said, nodding towards the group below them. Suigetsu nodded and jumped down on the floor with Jugo behind him.

"Karin . . ." continued Sasuke as Karin actually looked at him, "Go get Naruto and leave the Yondaime to me."

Karin nodded and followed her two comrades down to the ground. Sasuke still locked eyes with Minato and for the first time in years, he felt a shiver go down his spine . . . those eyes . . . even in Minato's condition, were filled with rage . . . fury . . . and the murderous intent that Sasuke felt, was what gave him Goosebumps. He had never felt such an intense desire to kill . . .not even Itachi was quite like that.

_He's going to protect Naruto __at any__ price, _thought Sasuke. _But why__ . . .__? _He didn't even blink as he studied the tall blonde.

Then he noticed that Minato's hair was the same colour as Naruto's. His eyes also held the same crystal blue colour as Naruto's . . . it was those eyes that Sasuke would never would forget. Not after all the sorrow he had seen in them, back at the Valley of End. Minato also had the same sun-kissed skin as Naruto's and if Sasuke didn't know better, he would swear that the Yondaime was a relative of Naruto's: Maybe a brother or a cousin, or maybe even his father.

Sasuke finally blinked and Minato saw that Sasuke had realised something.

_The Yondaime is Naruto's father? _thought Sasuke inhaling faster than normal. _It can't be true, Naruto's an orphan, but__ . . ._Sasuke didn't know what to believe.

His calm self was gone. Instead, a shocked expression covered his face.

Minato looked at Sasuke with dark eyes and even Minato himself felt that his killing glare was affecting Sasuke, but he had to break his glare with Sasuke because he noticed that a chakra was moving towards him, and that the person with the chakra actually wasn't trying to hide it from him. He turned around just in time to see Karin reaching out towards Naruto.

Minato became really pissed when she touched Naruto's golden locks. He waved an arm towards her, and regretted it immediately, as it felt as if his heart was ripped out from his chest. He fell to his knees again, holding Naruto with only one hand as he tried to support himself with the other one.

Karin, who had ducked under Minato's arm, smiled when she saw him fall to his knees in pain.

_He's already hurt. This will make things easier for me, _she thought and tried to grab Naruto again.

Minato saw this and tried to move, but it hurt so much. He cursed and used both of his arms and upper body to cover Naruto. Karin jumped and touched Minato's back, landing behind Minato as she looked at him with a slight frown.

_**He shouldn't be able to move in his current condition. The muscles around his heart are damaged on such a very dangerous level, but it also seems like he has eased a bit of the pain, **_**she thought and straightened herself up. **_**He must really care for this Uzumaki kid.**_

Minato tried to cover Naruto the best he could when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. It wasn't like the pain he had felt before; this was different. It was the same feeling he had felt when he looked at Naruto before he died fifteen years ago. It wasn't because of an injury, but because he was sad and scared for Naruto's life and safety. He was going to leave him again. He was dying and he knew that he was going to die, and therefore leave Naruto again, when he needed someone the most.

_Damn it__ . . ._ he thought again. _I can't leave Naruto_!

"Give me Uzumaki and . . ." began Karin but stopped when those piercing blue eyes met her black ones.

"No," Minato said firmly, after a very uncomfortable silence between them. If it wasn't for Suigetsu and Jugo fighting around them, a pin drop could have been heard. "Never . . ."

"Fine then," she said and Minato could see three medical needles in each hand.

_This is not good__ . . ._he thought and guessed that they were poisoned. _I have to get out of here__ . . ._

Minato tried to stand but he couldn't. Karin looked at him without any visible emotion on her face, which reminded him a bit of Sasuke's emotionless expression. Speaking of the devil. Minato saw two metres in front of him. He followed the feet up to the owners face. Minato saw the Sharingan that he had seen so many years ago with many different Uchiha clan members.

"Look what we've got here," said Sasuke and looked at Minato with cold eyes. "You're supposed to be Hokage and this is all that you've got?" he mocked Minato.

Minato glared back at him as he still was covering Naruto with his body. Sasuke noticed this. He still couldn't see much of Naruto, only a mop of dirty, blonde hair, with dried blood in it. He frowned a bit when he actually saw with his own eyes that Naruto had turned into a little kid.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchūriki and Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage. I figured out something I don't think that many people know," continued Sasuke and Minato's face hardened when he heard the word Jinchūriki .

On the inside, Minato was shocked since Sasuke obviously knew something. "You're his father aren't you?" he asked.

Minato closed his eyes for a brief moment as he sighed. "Why do you care about my relationship to Naruto . . .?" asked Minato as he closed one eye in pain.

"Hn," answered Sasuke and looked at Karin. "You know . . . she's pretty eager to get her hands on that kid," Sasuke said even though it wasn't as true as he wanted it to sound.

He was the one who wanted Naruto; he had only ordered Karin to get to him.

"And now you're expecting me to . . . just hand him over . . .?" asked Minato with difficulty. "I'm not stupid . . ."

"Really? I think that you would get farther if you just gave up without a fight. You might even be lucky to live after this," said Sasuke as he saw that Naruto's features form a frown that showed he was in pain.

"Since you know that I'm his father . . . how can you even imagine that I would just give him to you . . ." said Minato trying to keep the pain out of his voice, but it was hard.

Sasuke didn't answer his question. "You will give him to me," said Sasuke as he crouched down so that his eyes were at the same level as Minato's.

As his red eyes started to swirl, Minato cursed. He looked away and closed his eyes, but it was already too late. He was trapped!

Sasuke's eyes widened before he created the genjutsu, this wasn't going as he had planned.

_Everything was in black and white. He couldn't __see anything__ clearly, it was like looking through a camera: he could see what was in front of him, but __not on the sides of him__, even if he moved his eyes. He was in a room with a flickering light and it was cold. He tried to identify where he was but he __couldn't put his finger on it__, even though he recognized this place. But he did know that he had been trapped in a genjutsu._

_Minato looked at his hands, and is eyes widened as he did so. His hands were completely black __to his eyes__, and he noticed that he w__as only wearing short trousers __and that they were in white. It looked like they were glowing as __they lay__ on his pitch-black skin._

_Then he saw someone and he felt something grip his heart. It was Naruto and he was shaking in a bed when suddenly the room lit up. It was lightning, followed by a peal of thunder. _

_Minato then remembered that he was in Konoha's hospital. It was that night when Kyūbi had scared the living daylights out of Naruto._

_He just stood where he was and looked at Naruto. Why wasn't he moving? He was just about to take a step when he heard someone._

"_Naruto?" someone__called, and Minato turned around to see himself in the door to Naruto's room. Minato followed every step his other self took and he felt his heart twitch in pain, when he remembered Naruto's tears that night._

"_Naruto?" the other Minato called again. _

_It was then Tsunade saw the blood __trail._

_The other Minato __followed the trail__ to the corner, and when he got closer he saw Naruto there hugging his knees and crying. His__wounds had opened up somehow. They had healed to the point where they shouldn't have opened up, but they had._

_The black Minato watched the whole scene in front of him and for each minute that passed by he could feel himself __fading away__._

"_Naruto!" the other Minato exclaimed, in a worried tone. _

_He knelt down next to the boy, but he didn't dare touch him, fearing he would hurt him._

_The black Minato closed his eyes and wondered about what was happening. How could this Sasuke know about this, but his facial expression before the genjutsu told him something. Maybe Sasuke couldn't control what he was doing . . .?_

_It confused him. Naruto, Tsunade and himself were the only ones who ever knew about this. He felt like crying but he just couldn't._

"_What happened?" he heard the other Minato ask as the __black__ Minato looked up again. _

"_Was there someone here?" asked the other Minato again._

_When Naruto didn't answer, the other Minato in front of him hesitantly took him in his arms and carefully hugged him tight. _

_The black Minato was crying. Naruto __had__ been __so scared__ back then._

_Naruto, realising it was Minato, cried even more and hugged him back, tightly, as if he would never let go. He just cried and cried, ignoring the pain in his arm. _

_The black Minato swallowed and remembered how he had felt. Even though Naruto was in such a state, __Minato__ felt needed and loved by Naruto. Naruto __didn't even__ know that Minato was his father __and yet__, he trusted him and that brought Minato love._

_Minato remembered __that he__ had held Naruto very close. Someone or something had hurt his son. That had hurt a lot __at that time__, but what was happening __to him now__, was nothing in __comparison._

"_Shh . . . shh . . ." the other Minato tried to comfort Naruto, but Naruto just cried louder, causing Tsunade to start crying __herself when she saw the terror in Naruto's face. _

_The black Minato looked at Tsunade and he didn't remember that she also had cried. His eyes widened because Tsunade rarely cried in front of other people. She had cried when Nawaki and Dan died but that felt like hundreds of years ago._

"_It's okay Naruto. Da-I'm here," the other Minato told him. The black Minato smiled through the tears._

_He had nearly said 'Daddy' to Naruto that time and he knew that Tsunade had heard it. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you, okay? You're safe now." _

_The black Minato's smile faded away. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt Naruto again . . .? He had broken that promise. __Tsuwamono had taken Naruto__ and they had nearly tortured him to death! _

_The black Minato heard that Naruto's cries began to slow down a bit. __As__ he looked at Naruto he once again felt loved. Minato had been too busy __back then __to notice __no __more than Naruto and his pain. He hadn't even looked at Naruto's face, and now, the black Minato could see Naruto face __clearly, __and it was exactly that which made him feel loved. Naruto was smiling a weak smile through his tears, because he felt loved. Minato wouldn't have __caught__ it if he hadn't looked Naruto straight in the face. _

"_He won't . . . go away . . ." Naruto finally said, between sobs. The black Minato watched the other Minato hug him closer. "He's enjoying this . . ." continued Naruto._

_Minato saw the smile on Naruto's lips disappear as fast as it had appeared._

"_Who's enjoying this?" the other Minato asked, as he gently stroked the boy's head._

"_Kyūbi . . ." whispered Naruto._

_Suddenly, the black Minato felt the chest pains again. Something was happening with his real body. He just knew it, and he had to get back! The black Minato looked at the scene one last time before he turned around as he tried to break the genjutsu._

_He slapped his hands together and saw that the air around him became hotter. His vision became blurry and everything was spinning around like crazy. Minato closed his eyes so he wouldn't fall over. He focused and focused and focused. He had to break the genjutsu or else he would lose his son! He thought about the scene he had __just__ seen in front of him a few seconds ago remembering when he had lived through that moment himself. _

"_Naruto . . ." he whispered as he finally broke the genjutsu._

A child's voice broke through the fight.

"Sasuke!"

Naruto could only feel pain. He was surrounded by it, consoled by it, embraced by it and it wanted him to stay in it. He had lived in darkness long enough to get used to it, but now . . . there was something that told him to get away from it.

"Naruto wanna stay . . ." mumbled Naruto to no one in particular. "If Naruto goes back, those people will hurt Naruto again . . ." he was talking to himself in third person. "Naruto don't want to feel more pain . . . Naruto . . . Naruto wanna go back to home . . . back to the deepest darkness . . ."

Everything he said was nonsense, but he still believed in what he had said to himself. He didn't remember anyone that had been with him before Tsuwamono caught him. Everyone was a stranger to him now, but somehow he knew that he had known other people before, but what he didn't know was that those people loved him. Right now he didn't know what love was. He only knew what death was. He hadn't died yet, but the pain he had felt during his time away from the darkness was something so horrible that he was completely blinded by that pain.

The only things that existed for Naruto now were pain, sorrow, darkness, loneliness and hate. He was feeling pain because of everything those people had done to him, but also for something else he didn't quite understand. He felt a hole in his heart, but he couldn't remember what used to be there; he only felt sorrow in its place. He felt so confused. He felt three feelings for one thing, but what was this thing? He couldn't remember even though he understood that he should remember. He felt darkness as a close friend; it had embraced him. The pain, sorrow loneliness had been too much for his little heart to take. It was the only good he knew for the moment.

"Naruto, Naruto and Naruto are my friends . . ." said Naruto and saw flickering pictures in front of him. He often saw that when he was about to wake up.

Was that the reason why he felt the pain again? Was he wakening up?

"Naruto don't wanna wake up . . . Naruto wanna stay with the darkness . . ." he mumbled again. Suddenly, his eyes opened themselves. Then he felt something warm hit his face.

He looked up to be met by a face he couldn't remember exactly, but he had seen it somewhere before. It was a young man that held him in his arms, but there was something wrong. Blood was dripping from the young man's mouth and that was what had hit Naruto's face. Another drop fell and Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"Sasuke!"


	19. Karin, Tobi, Jugo and Suigetsu

**Chapter Nineteen: Karin, Tobi, Jugo and Suigetsu**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_Fightscene between Tobi and Hebi is written by Sarinax_

* * *

Naruto's eyes were wide open. He recognized that face . . .it was none other than Uchiha Sasuke . . . but something was off. Why was there blood dripping from Sasuke's mouth? Why was he in Sasuke's arms? And what the bloody hell had happened? He wasn't in his cell anymore, he was now in a large room with a lot of people around him, but he could only recognize Sasuke.

Naruto couldn't focus on his surroundings that much because of the pain he felt upon awaking. The pain . . . he would always wake up to meet it again. The comforting darkness would leave him and then he would only be left with the pain. As Naruto made a face, he noticed that Sasuke was looking down at him with his onyx eyes. Naruto swore that he could see emotion in those black, cold eyes, something that he hadn't seen in over ten years. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it was there.

Minato was looking down at the ground and couldn't really focus on anything. But what he did know for sure was that he wasn't holding Naruto anymore. He had heard his son scream Sasuke's name, which meant he had awakened.

Minato had both of his hands on the ground to support himself, his breathing laborious. He felt himself go stiff as he bent his head upward to look for Naruto and was met with a sight he couldn't believe.

Sasuke was standing nearby with Naruto in his arms, but what shocked Minato the most was what had happened to him. Blood was dripping from Sasuke's mouth and Minato could understand why. He had a kunai shoved through his stomach. How had that happened? And who did it?

Minato didn't see anyone, but then, he wasn't exactly in the best condition to notice these things, but still, he should have felt the chakra at least . . . then Minato's eyes went wide when he saw who Sasuke's attacker was . . .

Sasuke turned his head to the side and looked at the person who had stabbed him. Naruto felt Sasuke stiffen in surprise and rage as Sasuke realised who stabbed him. It was none other than Uchiha Itachi.

"Hello, little brother," said Itachi with an emotionless expression on his face as he held the kunai that went through Sasuke's stomach. "We meet again, at last."

Karin witnessed the whole scene unfold in front of her. It had really surprised her that Sasuke hadn't noticed the older Uchiha, Itachi, before it was too late.

_How did that happen? Sasuke's reflexes are incredible! Not one single person we've met this far has __been able to even__ come this close to him, _she thought as she looked at Sasuke with wide eyes. _Impossible__ . . ._  
_  
_Suddenly, Karin noticed that someone was behind her as well. She hadn't felt anyone's chakra and now this person was right behind her. _These guys are good! I can't underestimate them,_ she thought.

"You must be Karin . . ." said a female voice from behind Karin as she looked at the person from the corner of her eyes.

A blue-haired woman with a piercing under her lips and blue eye shadow looked at her with lazy eyes.

"What if I am?" retorted Karin as she turned around. She was now face to face with the woman that was wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it, with a white origami rose in her hair.

Without any kind of warning, Konan attacked Karin. Konan lifted her arms so they pointed to the left and then to the right, and ended with a half circle. Hundreds of origami birds appeared and attacked Karin who looked at her with a shocked expression on her face.

The fight had begun.

Karin didn't have enough time to move before the birds attacked her. They pierced her skin with the sharp edges of the paper they were made of. Her cloak was ripped to shreds, along with her shirt and skirt. She was now bleeding from various wounds all over her body. Her glasses were gone and her red hair was a mess.

Konan smirked at her work and could see that she had caused Karin a lot of pain.

Karin took a deep breath and jumped up in the air. She took three kunai from a little bag she had around her waist and threw them at Konan.

Immediately, more than fifty origami birds protected Konan from the attack.

_Damn it, _thought Karin and landed on the ground again. She ran forward and tried to hit Konan with her bare fists and feet.

Konan used her origami to shield herself again, resulting in Karin getting bloody knuckles and wrists, but that didn't stop her. Karin attacked Konan again.

Sasuke was stiff and couldn't move. Itachi had surprised him.

Normally, not a single human would be able to even touch him, and yet Itachi came and stabbed him, right through his stomach, just like that. Sasuke was counting on the fact that Itachi would mostly likely come for Naruto, but Sasuke was not anticipating meeting his brother like this.

_How did he find us here, so quickly?_ He thought.

"You've finally come for the Jinchūriki ," said Sasuke and it wasn't a question.

"Yes. You were using 'him' as bait . . ." Itachi gestured to Naruto, "So you could get to me," answered Itachi after a couple of minutes.

Sasuke didn't answer at first. "Think you've figured it all out, don't you?" he finally said. "But now that you're here, do you think that you'll be able to just take him?"

"Of course I will, little brother," answered Itachi. "You've gotten stronger, but you are still no match for me. I'm really rather surprised that you want to face me, since I can't help but notice you don't have the Mangekyou Sharingan yet."

Sasuke stiffened again, in anger this time.

Itachi continued. "I'm afraid that your goal will stay as an illusion," he finished, as Sasuke looked down, clenching his free fist.

Naruto wasn't aware of everything that was going on around him, but he knew that these two guys weren't here to just have a nice talk with each other. And what was this about the Jinchūriki ? What is that and why was Sasuke so stiff? Naruto felt Sasuke stiffen just by looking at this other man.

Now, Naruto could tell that Sasuke was really angry. Something bad was about to happen between these two, the tension between them could be cut with a knife.

Then, there was something else about this other man, that Naruto couldn't place . . . he looked a lot like Sasuke . . . could they be related in some way?

Naruto wished he could remember, but he just couldn't. It was frustrating because he felt he should know . . . and soon he fell into unconsciousness again.

The fight between Konan and Karin was still going on and it looked like it never was going to end.

Minato looked helplessly at Sasuke, Naruto and Itachi. He remembered Itachi as a young boy who was very skilled in all the things he did. It was then that Minato remembered what Tsunade had told him that night after he had cleant the house with Naruto, and Naruto had already fallen asleep . . .

"_Thank you Tsunade for helping me with the cleaning and __getting __the furniture to Naruto's room, you have no idea how much I appreciate that," said a tired Minato as he sat down on the couch in the big hall on the first floor. _

"_Of course, but you have to say thank you to Jiraiya and Kakashi too," she said __as__ Minato smiled. _

"_Yeah, guess I have to do that tomorrow then," he answered and yawned. "But there is something that I noticed on the way to my house . . ." continued Minato as Tsunade looked at him in confusion. "I haven't seen anyone from the Uchiha clan, where is everybody?"_

_Tsunade visibly paled and it didn't go unnoticed by Minato, who looked at her with a slight frown. She looked at her hands, which were in her lap and didn't say anything for a moment._

"_You remember Uchiha Itachi, right? That little boy who was as much of a genius as you," she asked with a little smile at the last comment. _

_Minato nodded and became more serious. _

_Tsunade continued. "Well, there are some things about him that you should know.__ Itachi graduated from the academy at the age of seven. He was also was able to activate the Uchiha Clans special Advanced Bloodline ability of the Sharingan at the age of eight, which was exceptional for one of such a young age," __she said and Minato was a bit surprised that such a young boy was so skilled._

"_Then Itachi had become a Chunin at the age of ten, and later on became a Jounin and ANBU squad leader at the age of thirteen. He was the most talented of all the Uchiha clan__._ _But then . . . something really bad happened . . . he . . ." Tsunade stopped as she bit her lip before she continued. _

"_He was being investigated for the apparent suicide of his best friend.__Shortly after that__, he killed the entire Uchiha clan and then left the village . . ." said Tsunade in one breath._

_It was Minato's turn to pale. Had he heard right? This can't be true!_

"_You're kidding me . . ." said Minato and looked away from Tsunade's stiff form, "You can't be serious . . . why would he kill his own clan?" _

"_We don't know what his real purpose was by doing it, but it was after that incident that he joined the Akatsuki," she said as Minato sighed._

"_Even though I could see things through Naruto, I couldn't see the most important stuff . . ." he sighed and remembered that time when Naruto had told him that he wasn't a shinobi anymore. "So there is no one left of the Uchiha clan except for Itachi and Sasuke?"_

"_So far as we__ know," said Tsunade and sighed._

"_This is just __so unbelievable__ . . . what happened to the peaceful Konoha I once lived in?" asked Minato __as he looked__ up at the ceiling. _

"_It disappeared with its Fourth Hokage . . ." Tsunade answered as she met Minato's confused and sad gaze._

_Minato looked down at the floor. Tsunade saw him clenching his fists and jaw. "Minato . . ." she began._

"_Kuso . . ." said Minato._

"_Minato it isn't your fault that this happened . . ._

"_Kuso!"_

"_Please. Minato listen to me," tried Tsunade but Minato was so angry that he didn't listen to a single word that came out from Tsunade's mouth._

"_In other words . . ." said Minato again and Tsunade looked at him with sad eyes, "Konoha has become what I feared the most . . ."_

" . . .a living hell," finished Minato as he looked at Itachi and Sasuke.

Minato didn't like the looks on Sasuke's and Itachi's faces, there was something really creepy about it. That little Uchiha boy he had known about sixteen years ago was a murderer. He had killed his entire clan, and just by looking at him, Minato could tell that he was everything that people had said about him.

Minato tore away his gaze from the Uchiha brother's faces to look at Naruto.

_Naruto! _Thought Minato as his eyes widened. Naruto was shaking in Sasuke's arms and even though Minato could see that Naruto was unconscious again, the painful look that was on the little blonde's face told him that there was more going on than just the pain.

Something horrific was going on inside Naruto, and Minato felt helpless to stop it. _Naruto! I have to get to him somehow . . . _Minato thought. That was easier said than done, however . . .

"You are as good as dead . . ." said Konan as Karin's eyes widened in shock when Konan closed her open hand.

"AAH!" An ear-piercing scream was heard along with a light thud, as water splashed all over the ground.

Konan studied her work, not smiling anymore, as she just stared at the dead body, now lying on the floor in front of her.

Minato heard a ear-piercing scream, as it echoed loudly off the walls.

_Sounds like someone just died,_ he thought as he struggled to try to stand, but it was no use.

Itachi and Sasuke looked like they were about to fight, it seemed that some other Akatsuki members were here, fighting other shinobi, and no doubt Akatsuki was after Naruto again.

_This place has become a damn war zone,_ Minato thought. _And I'm helpless to stop it, damn it!_ _If I can just get to Naruto, then maybe somehow we can get out of here, and let these guys finish each other off._

It was a great plan, except that Minato knew he was in no shape to even move. Hell, he shouldn't even be alive right now! The only thing that was keeping him going was saving his son, and he wouldn't give up, no matter what.

_**We will get out of here, I've promised you that Naruto . . . **_

Two kunai flew straight towards Jugo. He moved his body in a circle with his arms out, grabbing the kunai, as he twisted his body around. He flung them back at the users, hitting both of the ninjas in the chest. Jugo suddenly heard a gush of water behind him, and when he turned around, he could see two other ninjas were pushed back by the flow. Suigetsu had actually helped him.

"Tobi wants to join."

They both looked up and saw an Akatsuki member standing on top of the wall watching them. He slowly jumped down to the ground.

_The darkness had once again __claimed__ Naruto. It was embracing him, and keeping him away from all the pain. __The darkness never wanted anything in return for his visit there, making it such a great place to be._

_Naruto was standing in the middle of the darkness. It __completely surrounded him; __he was the only thing living inside of it._

"_**You really believe that this is the best you **__**can ever**__** experience?" **__ask__ed__ a voice that Naruto remembered and always would; it was __Kyūbi__'s._

"_Kyūbi . . .__?" asked Naruto with a small voice. "What are you doing here__ . . .__? I haven't seen __or heard__ you __for such__ a long time now__ . . .__" continued Naruto __with__ his voice __sounding __very weak and innocent._

"_**I don't think that these guys know that you're a **__**Jinchūriki **__**," **__answered __Kyūbi__, __as__ Naruto could see a very dark shadow cross his vision. __**"The more I talk with you through our connection, the more they'll understand."**_

_That didn't answer Naruto's questions. "What do you mean . . .?" asked Naruto and he was so out of it, that he didn't notice the evil behind Kyūbi's voice._

"_You don't have to worry about that,"__**answered**__**Kyūbi. **_ _**Naruto nodded a little nod and looked at nothing special with his dull eyes. **_

"_But why haven't you healed me__ . . .__?" asked Naruto. _

_He was getting confused over __Kyūbi__'s way of acting, not answering when he tried to talk to him__ . . .__ not healing him. _

"_**If I heal you, they'll notice and start wondering why you're healing this quickly," **__Kyūbi__replied__, __as__ Naruto __saw__ that shadow again. _

"_Oh . . ." answered Narut. _

"_**Baka**__** . . .**__** I'm actually healing you **__**enough **__**to keep you alive, not to take away the pain,"**__Kyūbi__ said, annoyed. _

_Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine, something bad was going to happen. _

"_What are you doing__ . . .__?" asked Naruto as he felt another shiver down his spine._

"_**Doing? I'm not doing anything," **__answered __Kyūbi__ as Naruto hugged himself because he was so afraid. __**"You and I are the only creatures here, and since I'm not doing anything you must be hallucinating."**_

"_I'm not hallucinating . . ." Naruto __answered__ a__s he__ hugged himself tighter, something was coming closer. "I know that something's going to happen, and it isn't something good . . ."_

"_**Oh really, well . . . that's sad to hear," **__said Kyuui and Naruto missed the manically gaze Kyūbi had._

"_What's going on Kyūbi . . .?" asked Naruto __with__ his voice __trembling__._

"_**I don't know,"**__ answered Kyūbi and once again Naruto could see that shadow. __**"I can't sense anything wrong. **__**You must be imagining it."**_

"_I'm not!" screamed Naruto __falling__ to his knees shaking. "Make it stop!"_

"_**I can't make it stop, since I don't know what it is,"**__ Kyūbi answered._

_Naruto__ finally __noticed the evil __sound to__ Kyūbi's voice. "You're doing this, I know it . . ." said Naruto and hugged himself again._

_Kyūbi laughed __manically. __**"Baka, of course I'm not!"**__ Kyūbi __denied. _

_Naruto could hear the sarcasm in his voice very __clearly__. __**"I'm not responsible for this happening, it's you doing this to your own body and mind. Let's **__**just **__**say that I'm just helping **__**it along**__**,"**__Kyūbi finished__, __laughing evilly__ again._

_Naruto was shaking __uncontrollably now __and tears fell down his cheeks. Kyūbi could be really mean, but lately . . . it was __so __horrible to be in the same body as him, and__ now, it was unbearable for Naruto to even be close to Kyūbi._

_Kyūbi was laughing at Naruto's helplessness, and the more Kyūbi laughed the more frightened Naruto became._

"_**You've created this fear yourself, I'm not doing anything,"**__ laughed __Kyūbi__as__ Naruto covered his ears with his hands and tried to be as small as possible._

"_Stop it__ . . .__" begged Naruto __in__ barely a whisper._

"_**You are the one who's responsible for the feelings you're feeling. Fear! Loneliness! Sorrow!"**__ continued __Kyūbi__. _

_Naruto __really did feel those feelings, but he also felt confusion__._

"_**Fear, because of the dark, loneliness because of the emptiness in the dark, and sorrow because of Minato's shadow **__**that'**__**s in the **__**same**__** darkness,"**__finished __Kyūbi__. __At those__ last words, Naruto stiffened._

"_Minato . . .? Who's Minato . . .?" he asked and Kyūbi knew that he had hit a soft spot with the boy._

"_**He's out there, trying to protect you, but he's dying because he has tried to**__**o**__**hard**__**,"**__answered __Kyūbi__. _

_At this, __Naruto was even more confused. __**"It's this man's shadow **__**that **__**you see. And **__**you can see**__** it because he's going to die. And there is nothing you can do**__** to stop it. There's **__**nothing **__**anyone **__**can do, but you won't remember anything of what I've said when you wake up**__** . . .**__** you'll foget."**_


	20. Guardian Angel

**Chapter Twenty: Guardian Angel**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Minato was sick of it. He had had enough. While Itachi and Sasuke glared at each other and talked about something Minato couldn't make out, Naruto was getting even paler than before, and that's saying something. To make things worse, ninjas were fighting all around, making the worst noise Minato ever heard.

Minato had seen that two female shinobi had fought in one part of the huge room. He knew one had died from the loud scream he had heard just moments ago. Not long after that fight had ended, three other shinobi were fighting each other. One was from the organisation Akatsuki, and two other shinobi who obviously were from the same group as Uchiha Sasuke.

The fifth Hokage - Godaime – Tsunade, was looking out through the window that showed Konoha. It was raining and she had a very strange feeling and it wasn't good. Shizune stood beside her and she couldn't help but to throw worried glances at her mistress.

"What's troubling you, Tsuande-sama?" Shizune finally asked looking at Tsunade.

Tsunade turned her eyes to Shizune and she let out a gasp.

Tsunade was a strong woman and Shizune rarely saw sadness in her mistress' eyes, and never tears. Only when Dan, Nawaki and Jiraiya died, did Tsunade break down. Jiraiya's death was what had hit Tsunade's heart the most and cut it in two.

"Tsuande-sama . . .?" asked Shizune and was unsure if she should press her.

"Something bad is happening," Tsuande finally said, much to Shizune's relief that her mistress had said something. "I'm worried because I'm sure that it has something to do with Naruto and Minato."

"What do you mean? Minato and Naruto are strong. Even though Naruto is in an unusual condition, I'm sure that he can beat some Chunin at least," said Shizune and smiled a shaky smile.

Tsunade sighed. "I know that, but that won't keep me from being worried about them . . ."

"You should take a break and just relax," said Shizune and smiled towards Tsunade, but it was weak.

Even tough it contained warmth it didn't reach Shizune's eyes because she was worried too.

"I can't until I know Minato's and Naruto's conditions and locations. I have to know if they're safe and that this feeling is from something bad I ate rather than having to do with them," said Tsunade in one breath.

"Tsuande-sama . . ." began Shizune again but got interrupted by a furious Hokage.

"No!" she shouted. "Bring me Kakashi and Yamato, immediately," said Tsunade and Shizune bowed and left the room.

It took some time for them to arrive since Kakashi and Yamato had recently left the village. They were supposed to go to Suna to inform the Kazekage, Gaara, about 'Konoha's current state.' It was under false pretense, but the men and women in the council couldn't find out the real purpose. They were going there so they could inform Gaara about Naruto's disappearance. Gaara already knew that Naruto was missing though, but he had promised to bring information if something new was discovered about the situation.

When Kakashi and Yamato arrived at Tsunade's office, they looked confused and worried.

"What's going on? Shizune sent a Chunin to get us, and he said that it was very urgent," said Kakashi in an even tone. He was trying to act cool and collected.

"I have a really bad feeling that tells me that Naruto and Minato are in trouble," said Tsunade from behind her desk. "I want you two to go looking for them and bring them home. You'll certainly find Minato but if you can't find Naruto . . . you still have to get Minato back to Konoha," she continued. "And promise me that'll you bring either Minato or both Minato and Naruto back to Konoha in one piece."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" they said and left quickly.

_Naruto was looking at __Kyūbi__ with sad eyes._

"_Forget?" Naruot asked and when __Kyūbi__ didn't answer Naruto took it as a yes._

"_Is this not a messed-up world?" Naruto suddenly asked him as __Kyūbi__ looked down at his host._

"_**What's your point?" **__asked __Kyūbi__ and understood that the kid had something __on his__ mind._

"_Love . . . a once pitiful thing with strength more than thousands of men . . . Life . . . the most valued of things . . . Competition . . . you have to fight in order to be seen . . . " said Naruto._

_Kyūbi was a bit confused. Last time Naruto had thought about life was when Akatsuki had taken him._

"_**Don't think too much, you'll only hurt yourself," **__warned Kyūbi __with__ Naruto looki__ng__ up at him with __such__ sad eyes that __even__ Kyūbi started to wonder what really __was going on __in the little human's head._

"_You're mean . . ." Naruto __answered__. "I'm just wondering, think about it too . . . Soul . . . no such thing as long as there are doubts and curiosity . . . Knowledge . . . death and life from different point of views . . . Power . . . craved and needed by all . . ." continued Naruto, "And to kill . . . a thing __called a __game to __some, others__ as murder."_

"_**Sometimes **__**the things you say actually make sense, you know that?" **__Kyūbi answered, as Naruto looked down again with slight confusion in his eyes. __**"I kill 'cause I want to, no big deal, and I don't have to explain myself to a little human **__**like**__** you." **_

_Naruto sighed and curled up into a ball. He stiffened and looked around when he felt that 'shadow' again._

Yamato and Kakashi were running as if their lives depended on it. They had been running for three days and they hadn't been able to find a trace of Naruto and Minato. They were getting worried. During the nights, they only slept for four hours or less and during the day, they only stopped for fifteen minutes if they had to eat, which they didn't do very often.

"Do you think that they're still alive?" asked Yamato as Kakashi looked at him from the corner of his left eye.

They were jumping from branch to branch in the trees now. Yamato was jumping on Kakashi's left side.

"I don't know for sure, but Minato-sensei is my former teacher and Naruto's my pupil, so I know them. I don't think that they'll die that easily, at least not Naruto. If Naruto is dying, Minato-sensei will definitely save him, no matter what the price may be," answered Kakashi.

Yamato sighed as he looked away from his former ANBU captain.

"I hope that you're right about that. Tsunade-sama won't survive another death of someone close to her. That Jiraiya died was . . ." Yamato stopped for a brief moment as Kakashi looked away from him, "That Jiraiya died was something that she never imagined would happen. Jiraiya was strong and had only lived half of his life, or maybe even more."

"He was a great man and everyone will remember him," answered Kakashi without looking at the other man.

Suddenly Kakashi felt something and stopped. Yamato stopped too.

"What's wrong?" Yamato asked, looking at Kakashi who was staring in front of him. "Did you see or hear something?"

"I felt someone's chakra . . . or . . . I think it was more than one chakra, but it felt like one . . ." mumbled Kakashi, having a thoughtful look on his face, "I have felt that chakra before and-"

"Who is this person?" interrupted Yamato, looking at Kakashi with a serious look on his face. "Sorry for interrupting, sir, but who is this man?"

"I was just going to tell you. Uchiha Sasuke-"

"What?" asked Yamato as Kakashi sighed for being interrupted, again.

"I felt Sasuke's chakra and it doesn't seem like he is fighting or anything. He is probably talking with someone or is around people, because I can feel other chakra around him," finished Kakashi, surprised that he wasn't interrupted again.

Yamato was acting weird. Normally, he would never interrupt someone talking, but would always wait, until they were finished.

"Ne, Yamato . . ." began Kakashi as he looked at the other man who looked back at him. "Where's Tenzo?"

Yamato looked at him with slight confusion. "Who's Tenzo?" he asked as Kakashi smirked under his mask.

"That's Yamato's real name," he said and 'Yamato's' eyes widened; he was caught!

Minato stared helplessly at Naruto who was still lying like a doll in Sasuke's arms. Everything was passing by so slowly that it hurt even more. Minato could feel himself slipping away; he had felt it ever since that man had hit him in the chest.

Minato was too weak to do anything even though he had promised himself and Naruto that they would get out of here. He wasn't so certain of that anymore.

Suddenly, everything around him became red. It was like looking through a red window.

_What the . . .?_ began Minato and looked everywhere to see if there was someone doing this to him, but he couldn't see anyone.

The world around Minato was somehow fading away, but he was still conscious. Then, he saw it: an image flashed of Naruto, crying on a dark floor.

_What was that?_ Minato thought and concentrated hard on the spot where he had seen Naruto's fragile body.

Minato saw Naruto in a black chamber. He had curled up into a small ball on the floor and tears were falling from his eyes. Minato could see everything so clearly: Naruto's tears running down his cheeks, glowing like stars. His fragile body, looking like a skeleton. Minato frowned and felt his lips tremble.

This was his son. It truly was his son, but to see him like this . . .

"And to kill . . . a thing called a game to some, others as murder."

Minato looked at his son in confusion and shock. He had just said that? He could really think deep sometimes.

Minato looked around to see if he was taking to someone. Then he noticed . . . Kyūbi was in front of Naruto with an evil grin plastered on his face.

_Kyūbi,_ Minato thought, looking at Kyūbi with such much hatred that it burned holes in the air.

If Kyūbi had never come to Konoha in the first place, Naruto wouldn't have to suffer. Even if Naruto never cried and always smiled, Minato knew that nearly all the smiles he gave were fake. Naruto put on a good act to fool everyone and to hide the deep sorrow that was in his heart. That hurt Minato badly.

Suddenly Naruto turned around and looked at him with frightened eyes. Something was wrong, Minato knew it, but he didn't know what. Minato started moving his body towards Naruto, and was about to tell him that everything was going to be all right, when Minato suddenly felt a cold grip around his throat.

Minato brought his hands up to his throat and grabbed at whatever was holding on to him. He took a hold of the cold hands that were wrapped around his neck and threw the body over his own body. Whoever the person was, he landed with a loud thud on the ground. Minato's eyes widened as he saw who the person was.

It was himself, but he looked so different. Minato took a few steps back as he looked at himself or his reflection or whatever it was. It wasn't Minato with his blonde hair and blue eyes; it was the black Minato that he had seen when he was trapped in that genjutsu of Sasuke's or . . . at least that genjutsu.

Minato looked over at Naruto who just stared at them. Could Naruto see them? Minato wasn't sure.

As he looked back at the 'other' Minato in front of him, a thought occurred to him: since that 'other' Minato appeared when he was trapped in that genjutsu, then maybe this was a genjutsu as well. Maybe he was just imagining all this?

"Who are you?" Minato asked the black Minato in front of him.

The black Minato didn't answer, he just stared at Minato with cold, black eyes. He didn't have a real face; all Minato could see was his eyes, which were completely black.

"Answer me," demanded Minato as the black Minato got up and continued at stare at Minato.

_**"Name's Kaikou,"**_ the black Minato finally answered with a voice that reminded Minato of his own, but . . . _**"And I'm you."**_ It was deeper and there were something tricky behind it.

Minato shivered as Kaikou looked at him with those cold, black eyes.

"You can't exist," said Minato and glared at Kaikou with so much fury that Kaikou actually looked away.

_**"I do exist. I feel very much alive too,"**_ answered Kaikou looking back at Minato._** "I haven't lived for very long **__**though."**_

"What do you mean?" asked Minato very confused.

There were so many questions without answers and it was driving him nuts. I wish he'd get to the point!

_**"Did you really believe that you would be able to **__**come back to life**__** without any kind of problem after your release from Uzumaki Naruto's body? Everything comes at a price and I'm here to fulfill my purpose,"**_ explained Kaikou as Minato frowned. This didn't sound good.

_**"For each day that passes, I'll get stronger, until one day-"**_

"Shut up," Minato said, cutting him off. He didn't want to hear what this Kaikou had to say, as Minato had a good idea what it was.  
_**  
"-**__**you will**__** have to give up so-"**_

"I said shut up!"

_**"-I can take your body from-"**_

"SHUT UP!" screamed Minato and lunged forward, recklessly, but this clone of himself, Kaikou, was saying that Minato would leave Naruto, by taking over his body and thereby . . . Minato could not even think about the implication of that.

Kaikou hissed as he was kicked in the stomach and sent rolling across the ground. Minato went to kick him again, but Kaikou shoved him to the ground, pinning him with his face down. Minato cursed.

Kaikou laughed as Minato kicked Kaikou off of him. Kaikou hit the ground and continued to laugh. Minato's chest was still hurting, but he hadn't given it much thought until now.

Kaikou smirked and shoved his heel hard into Minato's stomach. Minato gasped as the air left his lungs and was sent rolling across the ground. His chest hurt even more from that hit and he coughed up some blood, which he spat out.

_**"I'm here to take you from Naruto,"**_ said Kaikou as Minato looked up at him from the ground. _**"And there's nothing you can do about it. **__**I will fulfill my purpose for which I was created for."**_

"Can't you understand what I say?" growled Minato. "Shut. Up!"

Kaikou shook his head as he kicked Minato repeatedly.

_**"I understand very well, **__**actually,**__** but I don't think that you **__**know who you're dealing with here,"**_ answered Kaikou. _**"Do you really know who I am?"**_

"A clone of me, perhaps?" asked Minato as he stumbled back up on his feet, spitting out blood. He tried to remain on his feet, but fell down on all fours.

_**"Wrong, try again,"**_ Kaikou answered mockingly.

Instead of kicking Minato again, he took one fast step towards Minato, bending down to him as Minato was panting and clutching his chest. Minato somehow knew what was coming next, but he couldn't stop it. Kaikou was going to pick him up by the throat and then strangle him.

Minato saw it coming and felt a strong handgrip around his throat. Everything was swirling anyway and Minato couldn't breathe well anymore. His vision blurred and he began to wheeze.

Kaikou smirked. _**"Nice knowing you Minato. The pleasure was all mine. Oh . . . and by the way . . . Tsuwamono was simply something Icreated to get to Naruto.. and thereby youl. "**_

Minato gasped for breath, but no air came. Faintly, he felt Kaikou squeeze his throat harder and slower causing his vision to blur even more. Was this what it felt like to be strangled to death? Even though Minato was a ninja, and a Hokage on top of that, he had never been in a situation like this. To be strangled was something new; he had always been too fast for his enemies to even touch him. He couldn't believe this was happening.

Maybe it had helped Kaikou that Minato had chest pains? Minato didn't know . . . his eyelids felt heavy and he began to close them. He wasn't getting any air anymore. But it didn't hurt . . . he couldn't feel anything anymore. It was the weirdest sensation he'd ever felt.

Suddenly, Minato felt his body drop to the ground and air rushed into his lungs. Minato groaned and heard swearing from afar. It was getting closer though. Everything started to go black and he couldn't hear or feel anything anymore.

But who was this person who had saved him?

Minato did hear one word before everything went completely pitch black:_** "I'm one of the un-dead."**_

_Naruto was stiff. As he looked around, he got more scared with each second that passed by. Something or someone was watching him and he knew it. His lip quivered, and it was hard to keep the tears from falling._

_He swallowed a sob and then __broke down, letting__the tears fall__freely __down his cheeks. He__just __couldn't stop it__ any longer__. They__continued to fall, __l__and__ing__on his hands and knees and then the ground he was lying on. He brought his knees to his chest to shield himself from the unknown._

"_**And you**__**call yourself**__**a shinobi? What happened to all that brave talk you used to have? All I could**__**hear **__**before was that you were going to become Hokage**__**, that**__**you were going to bring Sasuke back,**__**and that **__**you were going to get stronger.**__**Was all of**__**that**__**just**__**bull?"**__asked__ Kyūbi__as__Naruto just looked at him through his tears._

"_I-" began Naruto._

"_**You're pathetic, and it doesn't surprise me why Sasuke left you,"**__ Kyūbi __interrupted as __Naruto's eyes widened__and __more tears fell._

_Kyūbi smirked, as he hit gold. __**"You tried to convince yourself so hard**__**that **__**Sasuke **__**left because of**__**Itachi, but do you**__**want to**__**know what I believe?" **__ Kyūbi's smirk widened and Naruto tried to ignore what he said by covering his ears with his tiny and bruised hands. __**"I believe that he left because of you. You're weak, pathetic and a fool. There's no doubt about it, he was sick of you."**_

_What Kyūbi said was a lie, but Naruto believed him. He tried __hard __to ignore the fox but the words__cut him to the heart so much__that Naruto was surprised it hadn't broken yet. He was rocking back and forth on the floor as he __continued to __cover his ears. He__suddenly__remembered that when he was younger, he used to listen to a particular song that he didn't remember where he had heard __it from__, but knew he had heard it__somewhere before, and it was calming to him._

_It was a beautiful song, and Naruto would always remember it. He took a shaky breath and began to sing, it was barely a whisper._

_Kyūbi looked at the little child with curious and confused eyes._

"_Watashi no egao sanshou shitekudasai__ . . .__" began Naruto __in a trembling__ voice. It was hard for him to say something at all at the moment, but even when he was ten years old or older, he remembered singing this when he felt like all the hope was gone from the world._

_"Watashi no kao wo kudaro shite namida wo nagasu__ . . .__" he continued and his voice was still trembling and it was still nearly a whisper._

"_Watashi wo koukan surukotohadekimasen__ . . .__" _

_Kyūbi__ watched Naruto and listened to the song. He had also heard it before and he did know that it was called "Mamori Kami", and that it's a song about a guy who would do anything to keep his friends and loved ones._

"_Soshite watashi ga ima no tsuyoi watashi ga kangae dashi ta__ . . .__ Kono sekai dedonoyouni kyuukei wo kaishi te dengen ga samui to watashi no tamashii ha__ . . .__" Naruto's voice was so small, but it was still very beautiful, __considering __that it was a little child singing it._

_"To watashi wo mitsu keteageruyo kokoro no okusoko de shitte iru watashi hatoieba , tsunokotogadekimasu__ . . .__" Naruto continued. _

_Kyūbi__ didn't say anything; __he just listened__. Even though he was an evil creature, he knew what respect was._

_"Watashi ha zettai nio aki__ . . .__ Watashi gaanatawo eien ni tachiaga ru__ . . .__ Watashi haana tanotamenisubetewo kaishi te__ . . .__ Tatoe watashi ni setsuyaku dekimasu tengoku ni soushin__ . . .__" __Naruto sang as__Kyūbi__ translated it in his mind._

'_**I **__**will never let you fall**__** . . .**__** I'll stand up with you forever**__** . . .**__** I'll be there for you through it all**__** . . .**__** even if saving you sends me to heaven**__** . . .**__**' **__it was really deep, but __very powerful__. Sometimes humans really could do things right._

"_Iindayo__ . . .__" __continued__ Naruto and his voice was trembling more than ever, "Iindayo__ . . .__" he sang darker, but it was still beautiful as his tears were pouring down, "Iindayo__ . . .__" he said one last time._

_"kisetsu ga kawari tsutsuaruto nami ga kurasshu__ . . .__ Soshite wareware nosubeteno hoshi ga rakka__ . . .__ Bichi ga nagaku naruto mijikai yoru ni sodatsu__ . . .__ Watashi haanata watashi ha, tsuno sho__ . . .__"_

_Everything was black, but he could hear voice around him__ . . ._

"_Watashi ha zettai nio aki__ . . .__ Watashi gaanatawo eien ni tachiaga ru__ . . .__ Watashi haana tanotamenisubetewo kaishi te__ . . .__ Tatoe watashi ni setsuyaku dekimasu tengoku ni soushin__ . . .__"_

Was he still alive? He wasn't sure anymore; his chest pains were still there, but they weren't as bad anymore.

_"Anataga watashi no gen'in__ . . .__Anataga watashi noha , watashi no . . . Watashi no shinjitsu no ai . . . Zentai maiha to . . . Nage tsuduke rukotoshinaidekudasai . . ."_

A beeping sound was heard and he recognized that sound very clearly. He knew that he had heard it before, and for him it was something really bad.

_"Gen'in watashi hakokodeha , anatanotame__ . . .__ Arui teinaitoshitekudasai__ . . .__ Go taizai woo kika sekudasaiteitadaku , taizai__ . . .__" Naruto smiled softly and continued to sing, __as __his voice echoed in the __huge, empty room__, where only he and __Kyūbi__ existed__ . . .__ and, maybe something more._

Minato had a splitting headache and there wasn't a single part of his body that didn't hurt, and just to make things better . . . he didn't know where he was, or where Naruto was. He heard people talking in the background, but didn't know who they were. Everything was so confusing and he didn't have any answers to his questions. What was that song he could hear?

"_Watashi toshite shiyousu ru baai ha__ . . .__Watashi no gen wo hii tearudakede suriru . . . Watashi ha daijoubu to waka tsu . . . Ta ningu kakawarazu watashi ha, haiiro no sora . . ."_

'I will never let you fall. I'll stand up with you forever. I'll be there for you through it all even if saving you sends me to heaven,' he thought as he remembered the song.

He had heard it when he was a little child and remembered that it was called "Mamori Kami." He would never forget that song, even if he had amnesia, he knew that he would always remember it.

"_**Can**__** you hear what **__**he's saying**__**?"**_ a voice asked as Minato frowned.

He was consoled by darkness and couldn't see anything, but he knew that the voice was very close to him.

"_**He said something about not letting someone go. I've hear it before, it's from Mamori Kami,"**_answered another voice and Minato understood that they must have heard what he thought just a minute ago.

"_**It does surprise me though,"**_ said the first voice again and Minato vaguely remembered that voice; he had heard it before. _**"He's been out for nearly three weeks and the first thing he says, is that."**_

Minato frowned again and suddenly he could hear more of the song.

"_**Watashi ha zettai nio aki**__** . . .**__** Watashi gaanatawo eien ni tachiaga ru**__** . . .**__** watashi haana tanotamenisubetewo kaishi te**__** . . .**__** tatoe watashi ni setsuyaku dekimasu tengoku ni soushin**__** . . .**__**"**_

It was a child who was singing it, he knew that, but who was this child? He knew the voice, but he wasn't used to the tone of it. Normally, it would be high-pitched and pretty loud, but this time it was smooth and soundless; almost a whisper.

_**"Watashi ha zettai nio aki . . . Watashi gaanatawo eien ni tachiaga ru . . . watashi haana tanotamenisubetewo kaishi te . . . tatoe watashi ni setsuyaku dekimasu tengoku ni soushin."**_

The song had ended, and Minato felt like crying.

It was Naruto's voice.

"_**Watashi ha zettai nio aki . . . Watashi gaanatawo eien ni tachiaga ru . . . watashi haana tanotamenisubetewo kaishi te . . . tatoe watashi ni setsuyaku dekimasu tengoku ni soushin."**_

Naruto finished the song and he had never cried so much before in his life. A small smile played on his lips. What the bloody hell was wrong with him? He thought. He was smiling, but yet he was in so much pain, and he felt so lonely. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't stop smiling.

He felt warmth he hadn't felt for so long, or maybe never. It . . . yes, it was something he'd never had, but it felt so familiar. He wrapped his arms around himself even tighter and somehow, the darkness, together with Kyūbi wasn't as bad anymore. Something had changed . . .something had changed for the better, but what?

* * *

---The song I used is "Guardian Angel" by the band "The Red Apparatus Jumpsuit", and I randomly made it sound more Japanese, but geez . . . it's not correctly used Japanese.


	21. Who are you?

**Chapter Twenty One: Who Are You?**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Everything was so quiet. He couldn't see or feel anything, but he could hear. It was the same words repeating themselves over and over again.

_Watashi ha zettai nio aki . . . Watashi gaanatawo eien ni tachiaga ru . . . watashi haana tanotamenisubetewo kaishi te . . . tatoe watashi ni setsuyaku dekimasu tengoku ni soushin, _he thought and felt so sad when he heard it.

_I will never let you fall. I'll stand up with you forever. I'll be there for you through it all even if saving you sends me to heaven_, the man or woman who wrote that song, must have been really depressed or thought about a very sad memory.

The words kept repeating themselves and Minato just listened to them, he didn't care about anything else. What was happening here and now was the only thing that mattered. Even if everything was black it felt like he had his eyes opened so he closed them. His surrounding didn't change, but he heard a voice that he hadn't heard before.

"-usness," he heard and frowned.

"-consciousness," he heard again and he tried to block the sound out but the more he tried, the louder it became.

"He's regaining consciousness," the voice said and without Minato knowing why or how, he found himself lying in a bed looking up at the white ceiling that had to belong to a hospital.

He looked to his right side and saw Kakashi and Tsunade standing there.

"What the . . ." Minato began, but his throat was so dry that he couldn't speak properly.

"Don't talk to much," Tsunade admonished him, looking at him with concern and anger. "You've been out for more than two weeks and tha-"

"What!" shouted Minato and sat bolt upright in the bed. "Where's Naruto?" he asked loudly, but it came out sounding harsh. He started panting.

"Lay down," ordered Tsunade and pushed him back onto the bed with a firm grip on his shoulder. "If you want to get out of here anytime soon, you should do as I say and rest. As for Naruto; he's still asleep and his condition is stable."

Minato breathed out in relief and relaxed. At least Naruto was okay, but he wanted to see him so badly.

"When can I see him?" he asked and frowned because his throat hurt from talking. Kakashi noticed and brought him a glass of water. "Thanks," he said to Kakashi who nodded and went back to the chair he had sat in earlier.

He emptied to whole glass and exhaled. "How did I get here?" he asked and looked at Kakashi with a frown.

"Yamato and I got you and Naruto out safely," Kakashi answered as Minato nodded.

"What about the Uchiha brothers?" Minato asked, as his face went very serious.

"When Yamato and I left, they were fighting each other, but no one knows what happened after that. I haven't heard anything about them during these two weeks. The only thing that we do know is that Tsuwamono has disappeared," answered Kakashi. his reminded Minato of that Kaikou guy. "It's like they never existed."

Minato looked away from Kakashi with a thoughtful look. Tsuwamono had disappeared and left nothing behind, huh? Kaikou said that he had created Tsuwamono to get to Naruto and thereby to Minato. But something wasn't right here.

"But Kakashi," asked Minato as he looked back at Kakashi who looked at his sensei with a curious, but serious look. "How did you and Yamato get in there? How were you able to save me and Naruto?"

"Oh, that," said Kakashi. "It was pretty easy actually."

"What do you mean?" asked Minato and remembered how hard it was for him to get to Naruto inside that maze and thanks to those guards, his heart had taken huge damage.

"Oh, let me tell you . . ." said Kakashi.

_Kakashi stopped and so did the imposter._

"_Where's Tenzo?" asked Kakashi and looked at 'Yamato.' "Ne, are you going to tell me . . . Konohamaru?"_

_Yamato looked at Kakashi with a shocked look and then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and when the smoke vanished Konohamaru stood there with a pout._

"_How did you know it was me?" he asked and continued to pout at Kakashi who rolled his eye._

"_One; Yamato never interrupts me when I'm talking. Two; he's never as eager as you were acting and three; __did you really think you'd be able__ to trick me with a simple Henge?" _

"_You got a point, but I wanna come with you. These missions are so cool. __I haven't done anything exciting lately__," said Konohamaru as Kakashi sighed. "I can help and I won't be in the way!"_

"_You expect me to believe that?" asked Kakashi and Konohamaru __put his hand behind his head and gave him a funny grin__ before nodding. "Mah, you're a stubborn one, aren't you?"_

_Konohamaru smiled and Kakashi crossed his arms. "But tell me; where is Yamato?" he asked and Konohamaru had a thoughtful look on his face._

"_Hm . . . He should be there soon," answered Konohamaru and grinned. "He knows that I did this though."_

"_Huh?" asked Kakashi and raised his visible eyebrow. "You're sure about that?"_

"_Yeah, he said that if I wanted to follow so badly I could, but only for a while. He-"_

"_Went out before us, or rather me, to check surroundings, look for trails and enemies and to look for chakra," interrupted Kakashi who already knew what Yamato would do. Konohamaru looked dumbfounded at Kakashi but recovered quickly. _

"_Yep," he simple said as Kakashi sweatdropped._

"_Where are we supposed to meet him?" asked Kakashi and sighed again as he thought what trouble this little goofball would be. He was worse then Naruto at times. _

"_He should be waiting . . . Maybe three miles from here. It isn't that far," answered Konohamaru and Kakashi nodded._

"_When we get to him, you have to get back to Konoha as fast as possible-"_

"_But-"_

"_And no buts," said Kakashi. "You have to get back to Konoha no matter what. This is very dangerous and I have no idea why Yamato let you come with us. He probably __taught__ you how to mask your chakra too . . ." he muttered under his breath._

"_Yeah, he __taught __me, but why do I have to go back to Konoha? What is this mission anyway? Yamato only mentioned something about boss, that's why I wanna help" asked Konohamaru and Kakashi looked down at him as he closed his eye for a brief moment._

"_I can't tell you that, but what I can tell is that if you come I'm pretty sure that you'll die," he said and it wasn't completely a lie, he really could die. Even if it was a D-rank mission a shinobi could die anytime and anywhere._

"_W-what?" asked a stuttering Konohamaru. "Y-ya're not s-serious are y-ya?" he asked again and Kakashi knew that he had gotten to him._

"_I am very serious, why do you think that two ANBU got this mission, huh? Mah, you're . . . like Shikamaru says; so troublesome," said Kakashi and Konohamaru pouted as he crossed his arms._

"_But I wanna come with you guys!" yelled Konohamaru and used Naruto's pout instead of his own._

"_That only works when Naruto does it," Kakashi __pointed out as__ Konohamaru rolled his eyes and sighed. "But __seriously__ Konohamaru . . ." said Kakashi in a more serious tone._

"_Yeah?" he answered._

"_You need to just__ go back to the village when we get to Yamato," said Kakashi in a __no nonsense tone__ as Konohamaru frowned, was this mission that dangerous as Kakashi said?_

"_But why would Yamato let me follow you guys if I only would be in the way?" asked a hurt Konohamaru and Kakashi scratched his visible temple; children._

"_I don't know, but we have to hurry now, okay?" Kakashi said and began running again._

"_Wait!" called Konohamaru and Kakashi stopped._

"_What now?" he asked and looked at Konohamaru with annoyance._

"_When you found out that I wasn't Yamato you treated me differently," said Konohamaru as Kakashi straightened up. "When I was Yamato you talked with me in a very professional way and __now that I'm Konohamaru__ you treat me like a kid! I'm a ninja too!" he __yelled__ as Kakashi sighed again._

"_Someone's hungry and tired, ne?" asked Kakashi and remembered that they had only slept for four hours max and they hadn't eaten so much either. Konohamaru was a still a kid and needed food and sleep._

"_You bet!" muttered Konohamaru and yawned._

"_You told me where Yamato was and that's the only thing I need to know, you should head back to Konoha so you can get some sleep and food," said Kakashi. "Have you __been __alone in the forest before?" he asked_

"_Yeah, three times before actually," said Konohamaru and frowned, what was Kakashi's point?_

"_Good, you turn around immediately and go to Konoha, you have food in your backpack and a sleeping bag in it too," said Kakashi and started to walk away from Konohamaru. "Oh . . . you can have Pakkun with you too," he said and summoned his ninja dog; Pakkun. _

"_Follow Konohamaru to Konoha and after that you can go," said Kakashi to the dog and Pakkun nodded and walked over to Konohamaru._

"_Meanie!" shouted Konohamaru after him and after that Kakashi began running again, he jumped up in the trees and hoped that Pakkun would be able to help Konohamaru home._

_Kakashi continued and ran until he got to the real Yamato who was waiting for him with a smile on his face._

"Konohamaru?" asked Minato and looked at Kakashi with a frown.

"The third Hokage's goofball to grandson that's even worse than Naruto when it comes to being annoying," Kakashi explained and Minato smiled a bit.

"You were sent on a very dangerous mission and Yamato did that?" Minato asked again.

"Apparently he did," answered Kakashi and shrugged his shoulders. "Wanna know his reason for doing it?"

"Sure," Minato answered.

"_You needed that," Yamato explained. "You've been so uptight and stressed lately and I thought that if I brought Konohamaru along for a bit that it would keep your mind on something else than just Minato-sama and Naruto-kun," __finished __Yamato as Kakashi looked at him in disbelief._

"_I can't believe that you did that," he said and his lazy eye was half closed in annoyance. "But you were right, __it did keep my__ mind off of sensei and Naruto for a bit."_

"_Told you so, didn't I," said Yamato as he smiled more. "But we have to get going. I think I've found a trace to follow," continued Yamato as Kakashi raised his eyebrow._

"_It's both from Sasuke and Minato-sama. Sasuke is distracted by something so he isn't masking his chakra anymore and Minato-sama is apparently very weak so he can't mask his chakra, but they are both near us and each other," said Yamato and Kakashi nodded._

"_What are we waiting for?" asked Kakashi and they set off. _

_It didn't take them long to get to a place where they felt the chakra the most. They were standing in a forest and it looked like someone had been there before them._

_"You think it's Minato or someone from Snake that made this?" asked Yamato and looked around; it wasn't a pleasant sight._

_"Hopefully it was Sasuke or one of his group members rather than Minato," said Kakashi and sighed._

_Dead bodies were everywhere. In the trees, on the ground, under stones and some were even standing up like before they died, but there was something that kept them up. Kakashi looked closer at the corpses who stood up and noticed that a stick was going right through their bodies that kept them standing on the ground._

_"Oh God . . ." said Yamato and Kakashi frowned._

_"I can't feel Sasuke's chakra among these bodies. I can't even recognise it, it must be someone else's," stated Kakashi and turned to look at Yamato who looked back at him._

_"You think it was an enemy or __ally__?" he asked and Kakashi shrugged._

_"Don't know. Maybe, maybe not, but there is something . . . inhuman behind it," Kakashi answered and Yamato sighed, this was bad. Really bad._

"That's it?" asked Minato. "Aren't you going to continue?" he asked again.

"Nah, not much to tell. Yamato and I found a huge opening that probably was blasted open by someone or something and we went in through it. We found the room where you, Naruto, Sasuke and Itachi were. There were some other shinobi there too but we don't know who they were. Sasuke was glaring at Itachi with Naruto in his arms and you had passed out," explained Kakashi as Minato looked away, ashamed. "Sasuke . . . well, he did something with Itachi and Yamato and I were blinded by something and when we regained our sight, you and Naruto were laying beside each other. The Uchiha brothers were gone, just like I said before; no one knows what happened after that."

"Thank you Kakashi . . ." said Minato and smiled a little, but he was still embarrassed about the fact that he really did pass out, "Thank you for everything . . ."

"It's what people do for each other sensei, it was nothing. You've done so much for this village and not one single person in Konoha could repay everything you did for us in one single action," answered Kakashi as Minato smiled. Kakashi wasn't that much of a speaker so when he did speak about serious things, it was deep and caring.

"You should try to rest Minato, we don't know when Naruto will wake up and you won't see him until he has, okay? You have to rest as well as he does," said Tsunade and looked at Minato with a stern look.

"Okay . . . baa-chan," said Minato with a smirk and he saw a vein pop on Tsunade's forehead.

"Nani . . .?" she asked and Minato's smile faded.

Minato laughed nervously. "Ne, Tsunade . . ."

"Who the bloody hell are you calling Baa-chan!?" she screamed as Minato covered his ears. It felt like nails piercing them.

"I am actually, and just because you see Naruto as a grandson doesn't mean that he can be treated differently . . . Baa-chan. So get used to me calling you that, it really fits you, you know," Minato said and laid his arms on his stomach.

"How dare you . . .?" muttered Tsunade as Minato smirked. He knew how to push the right buttons.

"But when do you think that Naruto will wake up? In a few days, weeks?" asked Minato and Tsunade could clearly see the worry in his face. "You know I wanna know."

"Yeah, but there is nothing that can tell us when he's going to wake up," said Tsunade who had finally calmed herself from Minato's 'baa-chan' comments. "It could be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. I'm sorry Minato."

Minato looked at his hands. Was Naruto going to wake up at all? His condition sounded bad, even though he was stable. Minato's vision suddenly became blurry and he closed his eyes.

_Damn it,_ he thought as he covered his eyes with his right arm. He couldn't let Kakashi and Tsuande see him cry, he was Hokage damn it.

It was too late. It was so overwhelming for him, and with not knowing what would happen to his son, he just started crying.

Tsunade and Kakashi were shocked. Minato crying? It was like seeing an angel cry. Minato was always full of hope, just like Naruto, so seeing him cry like this, they knew that something was really wrong.

"Minato . . ." Tsunade began as she walked over to the blonde man with tears streaming down his cheeks; even though his eyes were covered the tears were clearly visible.

She bent down and hugged him tight. Minato hugged her back; it felt like he was a little boy again, being consoled by Jiraiya or another adult. Jiraiya had been like his father so it wasn't that strange of a feeling.

"Shh . . ." soothed Tsunade. "We're doing everything we can to help Naruto. I'm sure that he'll pull through."

It took some hours for Minato to calm down. It was already 9pm, so it was now dark outside. Tsunade and Kakashi had left him alone, and Minato was both sad and grateful that they did, he wanted someone near him but he also wanted to be left alone. It was a bit confusing for him.

But there was still one thing bugging him, and that was that he hadn't been able to see Naruto. What did Tsunade think? Did she think that Minato would kill Naruto just by looking at him? That's pathetic; he just wanted to see his only son! Is that too much to ask for!?

"Baa-chan . . ." muttered Minato and remembered that that was her nickname from Naruto, it really was brave of his son to call her that.

He sighed. Time passed by fast, and it was already 10pm, but Minato couldn't sleep. He just couldn't keep his mind off Naruto. He just had to see his son, and he had to see him now.

Minato pushed the blanket away and put his feet down on the floor. He was wearing only a white t-shirt with matching trousers and he didn't have any socks, so he got goose bumps from touching the cold floor. He ignored it and walked over to the door. He tried to open it, but it was looked.

_Damn it!__ Tsunade knew that I was going to try __this,_he thought and mentally kicked himself. How was he going to get to Naruto if the damn door was locked!?

Minato clenched his fists and walked over to the window. He opened it and looked out, it was freezing cold outside and the wind blew through his messy hair. It felt good to Minato and relaxed him a bit, but he had to get to Naruto. He took a deep breath and walked over to the door again. He bent down so that he faced the handle, and above it was a little metal plate.

The door could be locked from the outside, but not from the inside, it had to do with security. Minato wasn't feeling chest pains anymore and his chakra was back, but he wasn't at top of his game yet. He gathered some chakra in his right index finger and moved it in a circle around the metal plate. With a quiet click the plate fell to the floor leaving a hole in the door.

_Making progress at least, but now what?_ thought Minato as he looked into the hole.

There were so many things in there that confused him, but then he saw what he was looking for: the lock barrels (lock cylinders). He then used some more chakra to make them go up and down in the right way. He tried several times and at the same time he tried to twist the lock itself. After what felt like hours a click was finally heard and the door went open. Minato smirked and stood up.

Tsunade was going to tell him off for doing this, but he could care less. He looked at the left and then to the right before walking out of the room. He was on the second floor and had no idea where Naruto could be.

"This is just great . . ." Minato muttered to himself. How was he going to find out where Naruto was? Then it dawned on him: The check-in desk!

Minato started to walk towards the first floor and begged Kami that no one would catch him. He came to the elevator, but decided to take the stairs so no one would hear him. He hurried down the stairs, but when he came to the first floor, he heard voices.

" . . . and I never believed that he actually would say that," a woman's voice said.

Minato jumped behind a pretty big locker with bandages and plaster in it. He hoped that they wouldn't see him.

"I nearly fainted!" said the woman again and Minato couldn't ignore the feeling of how pathetic women could be sometimes.

The voices faded away and Minato walked towards the check-in desk. It was pretty dark so he couldn't see very much, the lamps were out and he couldn't light any to see, or he would be discovered. He decided to light a fire with a fire jutsu instead.

"Katon," he said and snapped his fingers. A small yellow flame appeared and Minato used it to look for the paper where the nurses write down the location of the patients.

He found some papers about all the patients on the first floor and scanned though it, but he didn't see Naruto's name on it. Next, he found the papers for the patients on the third floor but he still didn't see Naruto's name.

_Where are you Naruto?_ Minato thought, trying to keep himself calm, but it was easier said than done.

He found the papers for the second floor patients and found his own name on room 275 but what shocked him was that he saw Naruto's room was 276. Minato felt himself getting irritated. Naruto was in the room next to his? He had walked all the way down here, risking getting caught, just to find that out? Minato muttered some curses and laid the papers back where he found them.

He continued with his muttering as he made his way back to his room, but he just passed it and walked over to room 276 instead. His muttering had stopped, and he just stared at the door. The plate above the door told him that it was room 276.

Minato sighed deeply and opened the door. He looked at the floor the entire time so he couldn't see if Naruto was even in the bed or not. He was too afraid to look. He stepped in and closed the door behind him. Without looking at the bed he walked forward to a chair that stood next to the bed. He sat down, still not looking at the boy under the covers. He took another deep breath and raised his gaze slowly. Immediately when he saw Naruto he started crying again.

Naruto was covered in bandages and he was hooked up to a heart and brain monitor. An IV drip had been inserted into Naruto's arm as well. Minato just stared at him; it was like if he touched him, he would break. Minato felt anger and sadness over what had happened to his son. Finally when his crying had stopped, he raised his hand to Naruto's face. He barley touched it, was this really his son? Was this really Naruto?

_He was running . . . and he had no idea where he was, everything was so dark so it was hard to see. Everything was in a blur, but wherever he was, he was running on something soft but still __felt__ hard. _

_He looked down at his feet and saw that he was running on moss __with__ some stick's on __it__. Moss? Sticks? Was he in a forest or . . .? He continued to run and he could hear something behind him, but he didn't dare to look to see what it was. He was too scared._

_The more he ran the more he could see of his surroundings. Oaks, birches, ashes, aspens and maples. Where was he? None of these trees grew where he lived in Konoha. For now he didn't care, the only thing __that mattered was that he had to run__ away from whatever was hunting him._

_As he ran, some of the tress had sharp twigs that cut him on his arms, legs and face. He tried to cover his face as much as he could, but it was hard since he was running. _

_The thing behind him was getting closer; he could feel it. He tried to run faster, but he couldn't! The twigs were in his way and it became __bushy.__ Thorn bushes and rose bushes were on the ground and kept him from running. When did they get there? Everything was so confusing and all he wanted was to get away, was that too much to ask for!?_

_His legs were full of cuts and he was bleeding badly __and the pain seemed so real__, but this had to be a dream, right? This can't be real because if it was, where was he? He wasn't in Konoha anymore, not even in the Fire Country._

"_AAH!" he screamed and tried to get away from everyone and everything._

_The thing was getting closer._

_The twigs and bushes were giving him more cuts._

_He was bleeding._

_Everything became darker._

_He tripped . . ._

_And fell . . ._

_Down . . ._

_Down . . ._

_Down . . ._

_Water hit his body._

_He woke up._

_With a scream._

Naruto's eyes opened quickly, and Minato stiffened visibly when he heard the cry from the little blonde in the bed. Minato's were wide. Why had Naruto suddenly woken up? Why was he screaming? Was there anything he could do about it to make it better?

"AAH!" screamed Naruto until his lungs were empty.

He was panting heavily and Minato just stared at his son, feeling helpless. Naruto's eyes closed and his little chest rose up and down, at least he was alive.

"Naruto?" asked Minato and looked at Naruto who opened his eyes slowly and looked at the man in front of him, he wasn't saying anything, he just stared at Minato and Minato began to feel uncomfortable under his gaze.

It was lifeless and dull.

Naruto stared at him with confused eyes. Who is he? He thought and tried to remember but everything was blank.

"Naruto?" called the man again and Naruto understood that the man must know who he was since he knew his name, but was he friendly or not? Naruto wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

"No . . ." said Naruto with a hoarse voice and tried to crawl away from Minato who looked at Naruto with concern, confusion and a little sadness, his son was afraid of him?

"Please . . . Naruto . . .Don't you remember me?" Minato asked, hearing that his voice was trembling.

"No . . ." said Naruto again with that hoarse voice. "Who are you . . .?" he asked getting as far away from Minato as he could.

"I'm Minato, please . . . you don't remember?" asked Minato again as more tears were threatening to fall. What had happened to Naruto during those months?

"I don't know you . . ." said Naruto and Minato could tell that Naruto was as confused as himself and that he was afraid.

"That's okay . . ." lied Minato and tried to keep himself calm. "Do you know where you are?" he asked again as Naruto looked away from him and stared at the blanket.

"No . . ." he said. "Do you know . . .?" he asked and Minato was glad that Naruto didn't try to crawl further away from him.

"You're in Konoha's hospital; have you heard of it before?" asked Minato and couldn't keep the tears from falling down; Naruto really didn't remember him.

"No . . ." Naruto answered again and Minato noticed that some of his wounds had re- opened themselves.

"We should fix your wound, you're bleeding," said Minato and pointed at a wound that was on Naruto's arm. "Will you let me help you?" asked Minato and he saw that Naruto hesitated.

"You won't hurt me will you . . .?" asked Naruto hesitantly and his voice was so small and innocent that not even Orochimaru could ignore feeling a little compassion.

"No, I won't. I'll help you, we're friends. Okay?" said Minato and tried to smile.

Naruto didn't answer for a couple of minutes and Minato became a bit worried.

"Okay . . ." Naruto finally said and Minato breathed out in relief. As he stood up Naruto stiffened visibly. It didn't go unnoticed by Minato.

"It's okay, Naruto," Minato reassured him. "I'll just go get some new bandages and a wet towel to clean your wound," explained Minato as Naruto nodded and then curled up into a little ball.

Minato walked over to a desk that was in one of the corner of the room and he saw a bowl that he filled with water. He opened the cupboards and found new bandages and a small light blue towel. He brought the stuff back to the bed. Naruto hesitated again, afraid to let Minato even come near him.

"Hey, it's okay, Naruto," Minato said soothingly. "Do you still want me to help you?" he asked again and hoped that Naruto would understand that Minato didn't want to harm him.

If Naruto could choose by himself he would feel safer.

"You can help me . . . but you promise . . . you won't hurt me . . .?" he asked again and Minato could hear that it was hard for him to speak.

"I won't hurt you. I promise you that with my life," said Minato and Naruto relaxed a bit, but he was still unsure.

Minato walked to the other side of the bed where Naruto was and sat down on the other chair. He noticed the flowers that stood there and smiled to himself. They cared for Naruto.

"Why are you smiling . . .?" wondered Naruto with big blue eyes looking at Minato.

Minato smiled again as he sat down, so that Naruto had to look down at him instead, being in such a high bed.

"Those flowers are really beautiful, don't you think?" Minato asked as he gently rolled Naruto's sleeve up so he could see the wound.

Naruto turned his head so he could see flowers and though he didn't smile, his eyes softened. "They are beautiful . . ." he answered as Minato was now taking the old, bloody bandage off Naruto's arm.

Naruto hissed at the pain and Minato stopped. "You okay?" he asked and Naruto was glad that he cared, so he nodded, despite the pain, and Minato continued.

When the bandage was off, Minato laid it on the bedside table and took the bowl with water and the towel to clean the wound.

"Tell me when it hurts," said Minato as he carefully dried the blood away from Naruto's arm. As soon as Naruto winced Minato stopped, but Naruto told him to continue.

When Minato had cleant the wound, he began to bandage Naruto's arm again, and Naruto decided to speak.

"Why are you in this hospital . . .?" he asked as he looked into Minato's face, but Minato focused on what he was doing while answering.

"I tried to save someone, but it didn't go so well as you can see," he explained and Naruto nodded.

"Who was it you tried to save . . .?" asked Naruto again and Minato sighed. He couldn't tell him now, not in his current state.

"Someone dear to me," he answered and Naruto looked at him with curiosity. "It's a little boy your age and . . . I really care for him."

"Is he in the hospital too . . .?" Naruto continued and saw that Minato looked sad. Naruto's eyed widened. "Gomen nasai . . . I shouldn't have asked that . . . Gomen nasai . . ." he said again as Minato looked up at him.

"It's okay . . ." answered Minato in barely a whisper. "I'm done," Minato suddenly said and Naruto looked down at his arm. A new bandage and there wasn't any blood.

"Arigatou Minato-san . . ." he said and Minato smiled. He did remember his name after only telling it to him once.

"Don't mention it, I'm glad that I could help. You feel alright now?" he asked and looked into Naruto eyes. Naruto could tell that he had been crying.

Why was he crying? Naruto thought and felt sad.

"I'm fine but I had a nightmare before you came in . . ." he said and looked away. "I didn't know where I was and it was scary . . ." he finished.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" asked Minato and was just going to touch Naruto's hand for comfort, but stopped halfway. "You don't have to, but when I was little and had nightmares it always felt better when I told someone about it."

Naruto hesitated for a moment, but began to tell Minato all about the dark forest and that someone was hunting him.

"And then I fell into the water . . . it was cold, and then I woke up . . ." explained Naruto.

While he had been telling Minato about his dream, he had grabbed Minato's big hand in his own small ones and was currently playing with Minato's fingers.

"Does it feel any better now that you've told me about it?" asked Minato and was so happy that Naruto dared to touch him. That felt good.

"Yeah . . . thank you Minato-san . . ." said Naruto and looked up at Minato with glad eyes, but he still didn't smile.

"Are you afraid that the nightmare will continue?" asked Minato gently and understood that Naruto was afraid to go to sleep again.

Naruto nodded and looked away. His grip around Minato's fingers tightened.

"I can stay by your side until you're asleep and if you want to I can stay the whole night," said Minato. Naruto looked back at him with surprise and gratitude.

"You would do that for me . . .?" asked Naruto as Minato smiled.

"Of course!" he said and Naruto actually smiled a little. "Now, now . . . time to sleep, right?"

Naruto nodded and lay down on the big pillow. He was still holding onto Minato's hand and used it as an extra pillow that he held on tight to. Minato laid his head on the bed and used his other arm as a pillow and soon they both were asleep.

* * *

---I received a fanart for this chapter, please take a look at it. You'll find a link to it on my profile.


	22. Amnesia

**Chapter Twenty Two: Amnesia**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_

* * *

_

Minato felt the sun hit his eyes and turned his head to the other side and groaned. He didn't want to go up just yet, he still wanted to sleep.

He sighed and opened his eyes; they widened at the sight. In front of him was Naruto, sleeping and using his hand as an extra pillow. Minato smiled and the smile widened to a grin when he remembered last night, because Naruto had wanted him to stay, but . . . his grin disappeared as fast as it formed. Naruto hadn't remembered him.

Minato sighed and closed his eyes again. What was he going to do now? Naruto had total amnesia. Not to mention the emotional and physical trauma his son had undergone resulted in Naruto not knowing how to really express emotion. Minato sighed again. This is so troublesome.

Minato sat up, with Naruto still holding his hand, and looked out through the window. The sun was about to rise above the horizon and the sky looked like it was on fire by it's light. He looked back at Naruto as the sun shone on his face. He could see the wounds very clearly now. Hatred and fury were clear in Minato's gaze.

Kaikou had 'created' Tsuwamono, just to get to Minato. And of course . . . he had used Naruto and this was the result! Naruto had lost his memory and he was so badly beaten that not even Kyūbi could heal him. He hadn't eaten or drank anything in weeks and Minato felt so bad. He was going to get to Kaikou, no matter what; he was going to kill him.

"_**You say you're going to kill me, ne?" **_a voice back in Minato's head asked.

Minato stiffened and Naruto's hold on his hand tightened. He recognized that voice; speak of the devil.

_Kaikou, _he thought and he heard a chuckle.

"_**It's my pleasure," **_Kaikou answered and Minato's grip around Naruto's hand tightened as much as Naruto's own grip had done. _**"You say that you're going to kill me, and how do you think that's possible? I'm one of the un-dead remember?"**_

_Get out of my head, _Minato warned him as Kaikou chuckled. Minato now understood how it felt for Naruto to have another soul inside your own body, it wasn't very pleasant.

"_**Sorry, can't do that," **_Kaikou said and Minato could tell that he was smirking wherever he was hiding.

_You__ . . ._Minato was going to shout back when the door opened and he turned his head towards the door and met a very, _very_, angry Tsunade.

"Baa-chan . . .?" he asked and saw a vein pop, he smirked even if it wasn't the right time to do it.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked and her voice was dripping with venom.

_This is not good,_ Minato deduced.

"Hello, I was just-" began Minato but even though Tsunade had asked a question she wasn't patient enough to wait for an answer.

"I told you to not disturb him!" she said with a stern voice and she tried to not shout for Naruto's sake. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"In a matter of fact, yes," Minato answered, looking back at Tsunade with serious eyes. "I'm here with my son so he can feel safe and—"

"Stop it, Minato," Tsunade interrupted again and Minato really wished that he could shut that mouth of hers. "Naruto's not supposed to met any people because he—"

"Here with whose son . . .?" asked a sleepy voice and Minato's eyes were about to pop out of his head.

Tsunade took a step to the side and grabbed the wall, Naruto was awake and he had heard Minato.

"Naru-chan, welcome to the living, how are you feeling?" asked Minato with a cheerful voice, while Tsunade didn't dare to even shout back at him to not talk with Naruto.

"I'm fine, but my body aches . . ." he said and rubbed one eye with his little fist, still holding on to Minato's hand with the other fist.

"I understand. You've been through a lot lately," said Minato and smiled down at the little blonde who finally released Minato's hand and yawned while stretching.

"I have . . .?" asked Naruto and looked at Minato with a strange and shy look. "How do you know . . .?" he asked.

Minato tried to come up with something good. "Um . . . I know people who know you," he said and slapped himself mentally. "You have a lot of friends that are worried about you, you know," he continued and Naruto looked more lost than before. Why did he even open his big mouth?

"You're confusing me . . ." said Naruto and rubbed his eyes again.

"I know and I'm sorry, but . . . you hit your head pretty bad and when you do that, sometimes you forget stuff," explained Minato as he beamed.

"Oh . . ." said Naruto and looked down, it didn't make that much sense to him, but Minato seemed to be a nice guy so maybe he should trust him. "But you didn't answer my question . . ." continued Naruto and both Minato and Tsunade looked a him with slight panic. "Who's son were you talking about . . .? You wanted to be with him, ne . . .?"

Minato was stunned. Why do children always hear what they aren't supposed to hear?

"Well . . ." he began and looked pretty troubled while Naruto looked at him with the natural curiosity a child would have. "I-I . . . I . . . You see . . ." he tried to come up with something but his mind was blank.

"You don't have to tell if you don't want to . . ." Naruto said looking at Minato with his blue eyes, but Minato didn't look back at him.

He took a deep breath and finally looked at Naruto whose eyes were filled with curiosity but also understanding.

_He's three and already knows how to say the right, but at the same time wrong things at the wrong, but also right time . . . _Minato thought and smiled.

"So Naruto," said Tsunade and Naruto looked at the blonde woman. "When did you wake up?" she asked.

"Last night . . ." Naruto answered with a slight smile. "I had a nightmare and when I woke up Minato-san was there . . ." he said and his voice became softer with each word.

"Really?" Tsunade asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, if he hadn't been here I wouldn't have been able to go back to sleep again . . ." explained Naruto causing Minato to feel a strange feeling in his chest.

"Well . . . that's good . . . I guess . . ." said Tsunade, not quite sure what else to say.

"Yep . . ." he said and Minato noticed that he was surer than the night before.

"Well, do you have a headache?" asked Tsunade and Naruto looked at his hands with a frown.

"Yeah, a little one though . . ." he said after raising his gaze to Tsunade. "But I'm confused . . ." he continued.

"Why?" asked Minato and wanted to know what was troubling his son.

"I don't know why, but I feel alone . . ." Naruto said and Tsunade saw a sad expression on Minato's face and she decided not to interfere. "It feels like something bad has happened but I don't know what it is . . . I know that something _has _happened to me, but I just can't remember . . . does that make sense?" he asked looking at Minato and then Tsunade.

"I'm afraid that we don't know Naruto," said Minato and he didn't lie.

He did know that Naruto had been tortured, but how it had affected him mentally was something that only he himself and probably Kyūbi knew.

"Okay . . ." said Naruto and looked at his hands again.

"Naruto," said Tsunade as he looked up at her. "If you want to we can figure out what happened," she suggested as Minato looked with wide eyes at her.

Was the woman crazy!? What had happened to Naruto was something so bad that he obviously didn't want to remember and that it was the reason for the memory loss.

Minato gave her a meaningful glare and Tsunade sighed. He didn't understand.

"If you want to remember I have to talk with Minato here first," Tsunade said as Naruto frowned. "While I'm talking with him you can think about it," she said while Minato stood up at those words.

"Okay . . ." he answered as Minato walked out of the room with Tsunade following him.

"You can't make him remember," Minato said when he had closed the door and made sure that Naruto wouldn't be able to hear the conversation between them.

"We have to find out what happened to him Minato. It'll be easier for him if we do it like this," she said and Minato was confused.

"What do you mean? How exactly is this going to work anyway?" he asked as Tsunade looked at the side.

"Since he trusts you, you'll be the only person with him. You're going to have a paper and a pencil. You ask Naruto about the feelings that are troubling him. Ask him what kind of feelings they are and how they are affecting him and then write them down," Tsunade explained.

"How can that be a easy way for him-" began Minato.

"It's easier than to force it out of him or to use a Mind Jutsu to make him remember everything, it would clearly break him. By using this method he'll feel more comfortable," Tsunade said with a stern voice.

Minato thought about it and realised that she was right. "Tell me more about this . . . method of yours," he finally said and leant against the wall beside him. He crossed his arms as he looked at the hazel eyes of Tsunade.

"Like I said; you'll ask him about the feelings that are troubling him and then how they are affecting him. If he says that he feels alone, you'll ask how does it feels to feel alone. He may answer that it feels like everyone around him is turning their backs on him, I don't know, but there is always something," Tsunade explained as Minato frowned. "By doing this, we'll see how everything that he went through affected him mentally and emotionally so thereby seeing how it also affected him physically," she continued.

"If he says that he feels happy, loved and trusted like many children normally say . . . he's like a normal kid should be, but if he says that he feels sad, hated and . . . dark . . . we will know that something is wrong, right?"

"Yeah . . ." Minato said, "But I still don't get it," he said and Tsunade sighed.

"How did you even become Hokage you blonde baka . . .?" she muttered under her breath and if the situation hadn't been so serious Minato would have retorted with an ugly comment.

"Ask me something?" Tsunade said and Minato looked confusingly at her before he got it.

"Say the first thing that comes to mind when I say . . . Dan," Minato said as Tsunade's eyed widened.

She looked away. "Sorrow," she answered and Minato knew that this hurt her, but this was only a test.

"What does sorrow feel like to you?" he asked as Tsunade bit her lip.

"You feel alone and . . . it feels like something grabbed your heart and twisted it," she said and looked up at him. "It also feels like you're the only one who truly understands what's going on," she finished as Minato looked away from her face.

"This way I'm going to ask Naruto the questions?" he asked after a few minutes.

"Yeah . . ." answered Tsunade and Minato breathed deeply, this was going to be hard.

"What do I do when I'm done asking him the questions?" he asked again.

"There is a lot of things that you could do after that, but it's up to you to decide," Tsunade answered. "You can write a poem of each word because it has a calming effect. It's one of the best ways to understand the other person's feelings since you can compare it with feeling you've felt yourself," Tsunade said.

"You can also just leave it at that and look for connections between the words. You know that sadness and sorrow are pretty much the same thing, but what I mean is that, you look at the words happy, kind and funny. In all of them there is something good, yes, but you can feel happy and you can be funny and kind, right? Since you can be both funny and kind you can scratch one of them. If we only have funny and still got the word happy, you can figure out a connection. He was happy and therefore decided to act in a funny way . . ."

"Woah, woah, woah! That was a bad example, but I think that I got it, okay," Minato said and Tsunade looked at him with a frown and then a smirk. "I'll choose the poem thing or something similar," he said.

"Similar?" Tsunade asked.

"I don't like that poem thing that much so maybe I'll change it a bit," Minato explained, while Tsunade sighed.

"Just . . . don't push him too much, okay? We just want to find out what happened to him," she said as Minato nodded.

"Of course I won't push him, he's my son and I don't want him to feel bad," Minato said as he looked at the door that separated him from Naruto who lay on that hospital bed. Minato frowned; he'd never liked hospitals.

"Now go in to him, the paper and a pencil are on the bedside table," Tsunade directed as Minato nodded and entered the room once again.

Naruto was lying on his back in the bed looking at the ceiling, but when Minato entered his gaze turned towards him.

"Minato-san?" he asked as Minato smiled towards him.

"Hey there kid," he answered seeing that Naruto pouted at the name, but didn't care too much. Minato's smile went wider at that action. "Tsunade wanted me to play a game with you so you won't feel so bored."

"A game?" asked Naruto looking at Minato in confusion. "What kind of game? A funny one?" he asked again as Minato chuckled.

"I don't know if you can call it funny, but it will be better than doing nothing, right?" Minato asked, shrugging as he went over to the chair next to the bed. He saw the paper and the pencil and picked it up.

"How do you play it?" Naruto asked and tried to sit up, but he fell back on the pillow with a wince.

"Don't move too much, your body is tired and it needs to rest," Minato said gently as Naruto sighed. Lying in bed was so boring.

_Maybe this game will be better than nothing . . . _Naruto thought and looked back at Minato who smiled again.

"You wanted to know how to play it, huh?" Naruto nodded. "Well . . . I'll be asking questions and you'll answer them and after that we'll either make a poem out of each word or we'll . . ." Minato thought about it for a moment, "Or we'll try to find a way to bring the words together in a sentence." He slapped himself. _Idiot,_ he thought.

"Huh? Umm . . .okay," said Naruto hesitantly, thinking that it sounded pretty strange.

"Hm, first question then," Minato said as Naruto prepared himself. "What's the first colour you think of when I say . . . small room?"

"Black," Naruto answered and Minato wrote down; small room – black, on the paper.

_Obviously, he was in a small room with no light for a long time, _Minato thought and became a little sad about it. He recovered quickly. "Good, what's the first feeling you think of when I say . . . woman?"

"Mean," Naruto answered as Minato wrote it down again.

_A woman __must __have been treating Naruto in a horrible way,_ he thought again. Maybe Tsunade's idea wasn't as stupid as he had thought.

"Okay, what's the first feeling you think about when I say . . . rope?"

"Hurt," Naruto said as Minato noticed that even though Naruto couldn't remember what had happened, he was subconsciously touching his wrists.

_Damn those bastards! _Minato thought and clenched the pencil until it almost broke.

"Okay, what the first colour you think about when I say . . . liquid?" he asked and he knew that if Naruto hadn't lost his memory he would've paled.

"Red," he answered and gulped.

He couldn't remember much, but he knew that these answers gave Minato and Tsunade what they needed.

"Good. The next thing I want to know . . . what's the first thing you think about when I say . . . man?" he asked and Naruto's face lit up which confused Minato.

"Minato-san!" he cheered happily, making Minato smile.

"Okay," he said laughing and wrote it down. "What do you think about when I say . . . food?"

"Hungry," Naruto answered and Minato froze for a brief moment before he wrote it down. Even though it was obvious it still hurt him that they hadn't given him any food.

"You're really good at this game Naru-chan," Minato encouraged him, causing Naruto to smile, feeling proud of himself.

"Next question then; what's the first thing you about when I say . . . Naruto?" he asked. This made Naruto feel a little surprised when Minato said his name. Naruto had a frown on his face.

"Confused," Naruto said after a while as Minato frowned.

"Okay, you're really good at this," Minato said to cheer Naruto up and it worked because Naruto smiled again.

"What's the first thing you about when I say . . . people?" he asked as Naruto frowned again.

"Evil," he said as Minato paled but wrote it down.

"What's the first colour you come to think about when I say . . . clothes?" he asked as Naruto thought about it.

"Purple," he answered as Minato wrote it down, maybe some of the men had worn clothes in that colour, or maybe it was that woman.

"When you think about purple, do you think about a man or a woman?" Minato asked as Naruto answered woman, he wrote it down.

"Okay," Minato said and Naruto looked up at him. "I've got the answers here and before we continue we can make some sentences out of it, or maybe you want to make a poem instead?" he asked.

"I wanna make sentences!" Naruto chirped with a smile.

Minato smiled. "Okay," he answered and he noticed that Naruto frowned when he moved too much; it definitely hurt more than just a little. "We'll begin with the first word then. I said small room and the first colour you thought about was black," Minato said again. "Now we'll just have to come up with a sentence with those words. But we have to have a main topic . . ."

Minato looked at Naruto before continuing. "The topic will be kidnapping. How to you think that a person would react if they were kidnapped? Would they be locked in a room for a whole week or would the kidnappers give them ice cream all the time?" asked Minato and tried his best to communicate with Naruto in the best way possible.

Naruto looked at Minato and frowned. "I like ice cream, do you think that they would give it to me?" he asked and Minato didn't quite know what to say. Naruto looked at his face and sighed. "They won't be nice, right?"

Minato looked away with a sad gaze and Naruto was a bit confused but he left it there.

"I have to make a sentence with the words small room and black?" asked Naruto who had a thoughtful look on his face. He left the kidnapping part and Minato actually looked a bit relieved.

"That's right!" Minato said and Naruto gulped.

"Okay . . . if a room is small and without any windows there will only be the colour black inside it," Naruto said and Minato write the sentence down, word by word.

"That's good Naruto, real good I have to say, but on with the game! The next words are woman and mean," Minato said as Naruto frowned.

"A woman that really is mean towards someone," he finally said and Minato wrote it down. This game took some time but sure gave good results.

"Good Naru-chan! The next words are rope and hurt," Minato said and it sounded pretty brutal, he wondered what Naruto would come up with.

"If you're tied up with a rope or ropes for a long time, at the same place, it would hurt a lot," Naruto said and yawned, not completely awake.

Minato sighed and wrote it down. Naruto was getting sleepy and just saying whatever comes to mind, but maybe it'll be easier this way?

"Good, but that sounds pretty bad doesn't it?" Minato asked as Naruto nodded sadly with a small frown. "Anyway, the next words are liquid and red," Minato said and bit his lip. _Two other words that could create a brutal sentence if you don't refer __to __strawberry lemonade or something, _he thought wryly.

"Um . . .blood is a red liquid and it tastes like iron," Naruto said and his eyes were half closed now, he was really tired.

"You're doing really well Naruto and there's only a few words left to create sentences out of and when you've answered those you'll be able to sleep, okay?" Minato said as Naruto yawned again as he nodded. "Alright, the other words were man and Minato-san," Minato said and smiled a bit.

Naruto frowned again. "Minato-san is a man that's nice towards me?" Naruto asked hesitantly, and looked at Minato as if getting permission to actually say that.

He relaxed when Minato flashed him with a wide smile.

"Thank you," he said as Naruto smiled a tired smile towards him. "But on with the next words, okay? Food and hungry."

"Um . . . if you don't get food you'll get hungry," Naruto said and Minato's eyes went wide with amusement when he heard Naruto's stomach agree. Naruto was hungry!

"Oh my, you're hungry aren't you?" Minato exclaimed as Naruto blushed and looked away. "It's okay to be hungry Naru-chan," Minato reassured him when he saw the obvious blush.

"A little, but I'm tired too," Naruto answered and Minato smiled again.

"Why don't you go to sleep then. After you've slept I'll go get you some food, okay?" Minato said and Naruto nodded. "Okay, we'll continue with the game some other time then."

Minato stood up and tucked Naruto in. Naruto felt really tired and even though his body hurt, it felt comfortable when Minato tucked him in. He smiled and closed his eyes. Minato waited in the room until he was sure that Naruto was asleep. He looked at his son whose chest rose up and down with each breath.

He looked at the sentences he got and it gave him Goosebumps . . .

_If a room is small and without any windows there will only be the colour black inside it._

Naruto had obviously been in that room Minato found him in for a very long time and there had been no windows or any light inside it.

_A woman that really is mean towards someone. _

A woman had sure played a big part in this game. The look on Naruto's face when he mentioned that woman was indescribable, but it was clear that she had been cruel towards him. Maybe torture, threats and other things. Minato shivered.

_If you're tied up with a rope or ropes for a long time, at the same place, it will hurt a lot. _

He had been tied up, maybe not by ropes; it could have been something else too. Chains or something. Minato remembered that Naruto had been chained to a wall when he found him. The wounds on his hands were very bad and infected. He had been chained constantly resulting in his wrist bones becoming visible.

_Blood is a red liquid and it tastes __like__ iron._

He'd definitely been hit several times and therefore he'd gotten blood in his mouth, or else he wouldn't have said that it tasted like iron. Minato fought the urge to hit something. His. Son. Had. Been. Hit! He took deep breaths as he looked at Naruto who slept peacefully. Minato reached out towards him and touched his cheek, which was covered in a bandage.

He sighed and closed his eyes with a deep frown on his face. Kakashi had told him that he and Yamato had found bodies near the entrance to Tsuwamono's base. They had clearly been Tsuwamono members, but how the bloody hell did their dead bodies end up there? Minato sighed again and his thought landed on one person only; Kaikou. He had something to do with this, he knew it. He had said himself that he had created Tsuwamono to get to Minato, but he had revealed himself to Minato . . . Naruto was back in Konoha . . .

Minato was confused. Kaikou must have killed them since he didn't see any reason to keep them anymore. But why would he just throw them away? He could still use them to accomplish his task, right? Minato sighed again, this was frustrating.

Minato blinked.

_He creatred them . . . _he thought. _That would explain why the cell they out me in looked so . . . fake and also why the guards were weak and said that they weren't supposed to kill me themselves, anyway . . . _

He looked at the next sentence instead and when he did, his frown was replaced by a smile.

_Minato-san is a man that's nice towards me._

His smile widened. Maybe Naruto thought about him since he had helped him through the night with that nightmare of his. He looked at Naruto again, who had turned his head away from him. There were two options here. One; Naruto had said his name because of the last night happenings or two; Two he had said his name because he had thought about Minato during his time in that cell.

Minato frowned again, yep, frustrating was the right word. He sighed again, it was on the way to becoming one of his bad habits around Naruto. He continued with the last sentence.

_If you don't get food you'll get hungry._

They hadn't given him any food. Those bastards, it was so clear even without reading this sentence. Naruto was a walking skeleton for crying out loud!

This was bad, really bad.

Minato looked at Naruto one more time before he left the room.

"How did it go?" Tsunade asked as Minato closed the door behind him.

He looked up at Tsunade and saw the worry on her face. "It went fine, but he needs to rest so I didn't finish, but I got some useful information," he answered and looked away from Tsunade's face.

"That's good. Will you let me see it?" Tsunade asked again and Minato gave her the paper he had written on.

She read it without making a sound and Minato was eager to know what her reaction would be.

"Well . . . from this information we do know that something bad happened right? We knew it before, but this just confirms it," Tsunade said as Minato nodded. "Hm . . . but then . . .

"But what?" asked Minato and felt the protective side of him showing itself.

"We do know that Naruto has amnesia, but there are many different kinds of it," Tsunade said and Minato looked confused at her. "Do you even know what amnesia is?" she asked when she saw Minato's facial expression.

"Yeah, it's a condition when the memory is disturbed in some kind of way," Minato answered and Tsunade nodded.

"That's right and there are two forms of amnesia; anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia. Naruto has retrograde amnesia which is the inability to recall some memory or memories of the past," Tsunade continued. "Anterograde amnesia prevents a person from gaining new memories and as far as I know, he remembered you from last night."

Minato nodded. Naruto had definitely remembered him.

"But then there are seven causes for amnesia," Tsunade continued again as Minato felt a bit uneasy for the moment. "Psychogenic amnesia, also known as functional or dissociative amnesia is a disorder characterized by abnormal memory functioning in the absence of structural brain damage. In most cases, patients lose their autobiographical memory and personal identity even though they are able to learn new information and perform everyday functions normally," Tsunade explained as Minato felt himself pale.

"There are two types of psychogenic amnesia, global and situation-specific. Global amnesia, also known as fugue state, refers to a sudden loss of personal identity that lasts a few hours to days. This is preceded by severe stress and/or depressed mood. Fugue state is very rare, and usually resolves over time, often helped by therapy. Situation-specific amnesia is a type of dissociative amnesia occurs as a result of a severely stressful event, as in post-traumatic stress disorder. Dissociative amnesia is due to psychological rather than physiological causes and can sometimes be helped by therapy," she finished as Minato tried to catch everything.

"Wait, so if Naruto has this . . . um . . . global amnesia he may regain his memory in a few days at the most?" he asked and Tsunade shrugged.

"Yes, but I don't think that this is global amnesia," she said and bit her lip. "Another cause is repressed memory which refers to the inability to recall information, usually about stressful or traumatic events in persons' lives, such as a violent attacks or rape. It fits with Naruto in a better way and-"

"Hold it! He'll get his memory back, right?" Minato asked as Tsunade frowned.

"When a person has repressed memories, the memories are stored in long term memory, but access to it is impaired because of psychological defense mechanisms. Persons retain the capacity to learn new information and there may be some later partial or complete recovery of memory," she explained, as Minato felt like she was reading every sentence from a book.

"But . . ." she said and Minato sighed. He was scared for Naruto; all of this information wasn't good. "It can be source amnesia too, it's a memory disorder in which someone can recall certain information, but they don't know where or how they obtained the information," she said and looked up at Minato's face. "But I do know one thing . . ." Minato didn't dare to move, not even breathe. "The amnesia is self-inflicted. He doesn't want to remember so he forced it away, but since he went through all of this, it can be a form of repressed memory," she said.

Minato didn't know what to think.

"Well . . . it sounds like repressed amnesia, but it could also be source amnesia, right?" Minato asked, as Tsunade was glad that he had listened carefully.

"Yeah, I think that it's a mix between those types of amnesia," Tsunade said. "He'll be able to regain his memory, but it will take some time. Sometimes a person regains his or her memory after a day, but . . . it can also . . . be permanent," she said as Minato's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Calm down Minato, it is very rare that a person never regain ones memories after amnesia. He'll remember what he has to know, but that can take more than a year," Tsunade finished as Minato leant against the wall again, using it as a support.

"Minato?" Tsunade asked carefully when Minato began hyperventilating. "Minato, you have to calm down.

"Oh my God . . ." he muttered and slid down along the wall down onto the floor. "Oh my God . . ." he said again and Tsunade began to worry for Minato's sanity.

"Minato, you really have to calm down, even though Naruto can't remember anything for the moment, he can still recall memories, remember that," Tsunade said and crouched down next to him so that her face was just above Minato's head.

Minato looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. He was still hyperventilating and she really hoped that he would be okay, but what happened next was something she didn't anticipate.

Minato fainted.


	23. FOOD!

**Chapter Twenty Three: FOOD!**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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Minato groaned while frowning. What the bloody hell had happened? And why did he have a headache? He hadn't hit his head, had he? He groaned again, so many questions . . .

He was currently lying on a coach and judging by the smell, he was still in the hospital.

_Hospital? __I'm still in the hospital?_Minato thought and opened one eye, the sun hit his eyes and he laid his arm over his face. _Yeah, that's__right__ . . .__ I'm in the hospital__ and Tsuande was telling me about Naruto's condition when__ . . ._

"Naruto!" he shouted suddenly and sat up with a jerk looking around, but saw no one.

His eyes were now wide open but he closed them quickly thanks to the sun.

He slowly opened his eyes, gradually letting them adjust to the sun's light. He swung his legs around and put them down on the cold floor.

Minato looked around again and noticed that he was in his same room as before, in other words, the room next to Naruto's. He stood up and staggered as he lifted one hand and held it on his head. He felt really sick, as if he would vomit any time. He used the closest wall as support and tried to calm himself.

After a few minutes, he walked towards the door. It wasn't locked this time, and Minato couldn't help but smile when he saw that they had fixed the lock on the door. He chuckled, opened the door and walked out. He looked to his right and saw Naruto's door. Without closing his own door he went over to Naruto's and thinking that it would be quiet in the room since Naruto obviously needed some rest, he was very surprised when he heard loud voices and someone crying.

Minato felt panic build inside him and he grabbed the door handle and opened the door with a jerk. As the door slammed into the wall, everyone looked up with surprise at Minato.

Tsunade, Shizune and two other nurses were inside the room, trying to calm a crying Naruto who lay in the bed on his back with his arms over his head.

"What's going on?" asked Minato trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Tsunade looked up at him with a pleading gaze.

"He isn't used to moving that much and sometime during his time at those people . . ." she stopped as Minato looked at her with wide eyes filled with fear. "He can't move his legs."

Minato just stood there. "No . . ." he finally said and looked at Naruto who continued to cry.

Minato wanted to comfort him, but . . . he just couldn't move. He was frozen.

His thoughts were in turmoil, but what worried him the most was that everything seemed to be against him and Naruto. It was like fate didn't want them to finally have the relationship a father and son should share together. Naruto got kidnapped and tortured, he got amnesia and now he can't move his legs. Why did everything happen to Naruto?

"Damn it!" Minato shouted, slamming his fist into the wall so hard it cracked. His eyes were closed and when he finally opened them he realised that he actually had said that out loud. Not only that, but when he removed his hand from the wall, he saw the cracks he made in the wall.

Minato's outburst caused Naruto to stop crying immediately. He thought Minato was angry with him.

"Gomen . . ." he whispered, without looking at Minato who looked back at Naruto with wide eyes. Why was he apologising?

"Why are you apologising? And what for?" Minato asked as Naruto didn't answer at first, but after a while he sighed and lowered his arms.

"Aren't you angry with me . . .?" Naruto asked in confusion and looked at Minato's face which only showed shock as Naruto gulped.

"No . . . of course not," Minato answered calmly.

His initial shock was replaced by sadness. How could Naruto even think that?

Naruto looked away with a blush as Tsunade sighed. Naruto thought that he had done something wrong and therefore apologised. It wasn't the first time that he had misunderstood something like this. Blaming himself for something he didn't do and then apologising for it. It could only be the result of what had happened to him during the kidnapping.

"Shizune, Mika, Erika!" Tsunade said in a loud voice and the three women looked at their Hokage. "I need to speak with Naruto and Minato, so please leave the room."

They bowed and went out of the room. Shizune gave Tsunade a quick glance before closing the door quietly.

"Okay, listen Minato, this isn't anything serious," Tsunade said in one breath as Minato looked at her with a confused expression on his face. "When I came here he was crying and said that he couldn't move his legs so I was checking up on him, when you came in."

"But what is the problem then?" Minato asked and he was both worried and scared to hear the answer.

"I thought at first that he might be suffering from paraplegia. It's when you're paralyzed from waist down, but you're still able to feel your legs. But thank Kami I was wrong. It's just that those muscles aren't used to that kind of movement, in other words; because he's been in the same position for so long without being able to move his legs, the muscles have atrophied and they just need to be built up again," Tsunade explained as Minato breathed out. His son wasn't in that much danger after all.

"Yeah, thank Kami . . ." he sighed and Tsunade smiled a little.

"It'll probably take him some time to be able to walk again, but not more than a week with his healing abilities," she continued as Minato leant against wall, listening carefully. "But since he's still in pretty bad shape, we won't even let him walk for at least two weeks, so don't even think about moving young man," Tsunade said and turned her head to Naruto, who stiffened at her glare.

"H-hai, Tsunade-san," Naruto answered as Tsunade frowned at not being called Tsunade-baachan, but she guessed that she could get used to it. Naruto wouldn't regain his memory for a while.

"Good," she said and walked over to Minato. "He's probably hungry, so give him something to eat. Oh, and if you're wondering; you were out for two hours," she said and then walked out from the room, leaving Minato with Naruto, who's eyes were red and still filled with tears.

"Hey there, Naru-chan," he said and smiled at Naruto who didn't smile back, still feeling confused. Yes, he had heard what Tsunade said but he didn't really understand it.

"Hi . . ." he answered in a faint voice and Minato noticed that tears were still falling, so he walked over to him.

"Are you worried?" Minato asked and Naruto nodded as he starting sobbing.

"Will I walk again . . .?" he asked as he tried to stop crying. Minato saw the fear in Naruto's eyes and didn't know if he should hug him or not, it may hurt him.

"Of course you will, but you have to learn _how_ to walk again when you feel better," Minato explained as Naruto frowned.

"What do you mean . . .?" Naruto asked as Minato smiled at him.

"Well, you see . . . you haven't moved your legs for quite a while so you could say that they're asleep and you have to wake them up," Minato explained, seeing that Naruto understood somehow.

"But how do you wake them up then?" Naruto asked, crying again.

"You'll have to try to walk on them and after a while they'll finally be awake again and you can walk by yourself," Minato told him.

"But why are my legs asleep?" he asked and Minato was glad that Naruto wasn't crying anymore.

"You haven't moved them as much as you used too before so they got bored and decided to take a nap," Minato said, knowing that sounded pathetic, but given Naruto's child-like state of mind, it was best to put it in terms that he would understand.

"Stupid legs . . ." Naruto muttered as Minato laughed.

"Yeah, but don't worry, they'll get better soon. Now, do you remember what I promised you last time?" Minato asked as Naruto looked up at him with confused eyes, but than his face lit up.

"Food!" he exclaimed as Minato laughed again at the enthusiasm. Naruto would always be Naruto and love food.

"That's right and you can decide what you want to eat," Minato said but then his face fell and Naruto frowned. "I just remembered something . . ." he said and Naruto paled, had he done something wrong again? "The hospital food tastes awful!" he exclaimed and Naruto looked at him with relief.

"What kind of food do you get here?" he asked and Minato thought for a second.

"I have to idea, really. But I would guess that it would be some sort of meat with rice, or you could have soup instead," he said as Naruto dried away his fallen tears.

"Hm . . . it doesn't sound that bad," Naruto said and it was Minato's turn to pale.

"Trust me, you don't want to eat it," he said as Naruto gulped. What could be so wrong with it?

"What do you eat at home then?" Naruto asked as Minato smiled.

"Well, I cook myself and I like to make Kimpira, which is carrots boiled in soy sauce, oil and sugar, it's really sweet and you could say that it's a mix between healthy food and not so healthy food," Minato smiled again. "I also like Nikujaga which is beef meat, potato and onion boiled in soy sauce, sake and sugar," Minato continued and at the sound of beef meat, Naruto's stomach rumbled.

"My, my you're really hungry, aren't you?" Minato asked and smiled. "Since you're not supposed to move around, I will get you something to eat, okay?" Minato asked and smiled even wider.

"Hai!" Naruto chirped. "Demo . . ." he continued. "I don't know what I want to eat," he said.

"Well . . . do you think that Kimpira would do?" Minato asked.

"I want meat too," Naruto said and blushed while Minato frowned at the action, but he let it go.

"Okay, what about . . .Tonjiru? It's miso soup with pork meat," Minato said and Naruto thought about it.

"Is there anything else?" he asked and Minato really had to think about it.

"Well . . . there is Nimono, but it only contains boiled vegetables . . . Chawanmushi but that contains egg with vegetables, no meat there either . . . Yakizakana is grilled fish . . . Tori no Karaage is deep-fried chicken . . ." Minato went on as Naruto tried to remember all the stuff Minato said so he could choose something that sounded good.

"Or, would you like some kind of rice, maybe?" Minato asked and Naruto shrugged, he didn't know, maybe it would be good.

He hissed when he moved his shoulders, no one but Minato would have noticed, and he did.

"There are many different meals with rice in it," Minato said, thinking again. "Oyakodon, Katsudon, Tendon, Unadon, but I don't think that you'll like Unadon, it's broiled eel," Minayo said and Naruto made a face, he didn't' like eel. "But then there is Gyuudon and Tekkadon too," Minato continued as Naruto thought about again.

Oyakadon is egg with chicken and rice in a bowl and Katsudon is pork with rice and sauce. Tendon is vegetables and seafood dipped in batter and deep-fried, also with rice since this was rice meals. Unadon was eel and that's not something Naruto liked, but Gyuudon was beef with rice and that sounded good_ and_ eatable. Tekkadon didn't sound good; it was raw tuna with rice, ick!

"Gyuudon sounds good," Naruto finally said after some thinking.

"Then Gyuudon it is, okay?" Minato said and grinned. "I'll go get that and you wait here," Minato said and turned around. "I'll see you soon!"

He closed the door behind him and hoped that Naruto would be okay without anyone there with him. He smiled and walked towards Tsunade's office in the hospital.

Half an hour later, Minato entered the room again, carrying two bowls in his hands. One normal sized and one, which was a little smaller.

He had talked with Tsunade about giving Naruto food that wasn't hospital food and after nearly ten minutes of arguing he won and since Minato still wasn't allowed to leave the hospital, Shizune went to a shop and bought the food.

Naruto looked at him with a smile and Minato grinned back.

"Shizune bought this for us and she bought some Miso ramen for me as well, nice of her isn't it," Minato said and put the food down on the bedside table and went to close the door again.

He sat down on the chair next to Naruto's bed and prepared the smaller bowls so he could feed Naruto, since Naruto couldn't to it himself because of his condition.

"Here you are," he said when he was done and taking some beef with the chopsticks, offered it to Naruto.

Naruto opened his mouth and took it. He chewed pretty slowly since he wasn't used to it and after a while he finally swallowed and sighed.

"That was hard. My cheeks hurt," Naruto said and touched his cheek with a bandaged hand. He winced, but ignored it.

Minato frowned. "You can just eat the rice then, so you don't have to chew so much," he said as Naruto nodded enthusiastically while Minato smiled.

As the day continued, Minato was by Naruto's side the whole time to make sure that he was okay and didn't feel scared or uncomfortable. Minato played games with him so time would pass by more quickly and he continued to help Naruto to eat along with many other necessary things.

It was now after 8pm and Naruto was already asleep, but that didn't keep Minato from his son. He was sitting in a chair by Naruto's bed looking at Naruto's sleeping form as he softly stroked Naruto's blonde locks. They were so much like his own locks and Minato smiled at the thought. His son was so much like him in many ways. The hair, the eyes, the smile, even the use of the Rasengan. He smiled again as he stood up.

He looked at Naruto one more time before closing the door behind him. He walked over to his room and looked at the bedside table and made a face. Tsunade had made a medication for him so his heart would heal better. Even though it already was soon more than three weeks after the injury, it was still hurting sometimes. Tsunade had told him that the muscles around his heart were badly damaged, but only to the point where it would _nearly_ kill. It was very serious injury, yes, but the one who had given him the injury had made sure that he would suffer from it really badly, not die.

He sighed and took a pill from the bottle. He took it in his mouth and swallowed it. When it was done he made a face again, it tasted horrible, even if it only was a pill and not a liquid.

The medicine would always put him to sleep and once he had swallowed it, it would work immediately. He lay down on the bed and before his head had hit the pillow he was deep asleep.

"_**Welcome back, Minato. It's always a pleasure to **__**see**__** you."**_

_She was gone._

"_Oh poor woman . . ."_

_Still, Minato held her ice-cold hand in his. He looked her peaceful yet, pale face. It was like watching a cold snowy December day. When nothing seems to move__ . . .__ when not a single sound could be heard except for the wind._

_But why? Why had she left him? Why had she left her newborn son? Why did she give her life? Why? Why? Why?_

"_**Why, why, why! So many why's**__** . . .**__** you humans really are pathetic."**_

_Minato couldn't move__ . . .__ couldn't think__ . . .__ couldn't breathe__ . . .__ he could only watch her face and cry. He felt the hot tears streaming down his face and pale skin. Just then a cry filled the room: A cry from someone innocent and pure. Someone who had just started to exist in this world._

_Minato broke his gaze from the pale woman and looked around the room. That cry__ . . .__ he knew instinctively, whom it belonged to. He knew he had to do something. Somehow he knew it was his responsibility__ . . .__ as a father._

"_My son__ . . .__" he said as he watched Tsunade come in through the white door with a newborn baby boy in her arms._

"_Your son!? Looks like a freak to me!"_

_Tsunade looked at Minato with sorrow. She could feel the pain he was suffering from and saw the fresh tears streaming down his cheeks. It was the very first time she saw the young, blond man in front of her cry openly._

"_Tears, tears, tears . . . oh so sad . . . I feel like crying myself! Hmf! Yeah right . . . idiots . . ."_

_Minato's gaze was dull but she saw that it focused on the baby in her arms. When she looked closer she saw his eyes soften and a little smile played across the man's face._

"_So I'm a dad?" he asked as he dried away his tears and showed her a faint smile nowhere near his normal grin, but at least it was a smile._

_Tsunade smiled a little as well and went to the man beside the dead woman's bed. She gave him the boy and he took him with an indescribable face._

_Minato held him with shaking arms and then hugged him tight. The little boy, who had been screaming, suddenly felt safe and calmed down._

"_**He's calming down by looking at the horrifying face with a blonde tuft of grass as hair and those blue things in the middle of the flat face?"**_

"_What's his name?" Tsunade asked in a faint and tired voice._

"_**What's his name? Oh, I really wanna know! IDIOTIC!"**_

_Minato looked at her and life seemed to come back to him. "Naruto," he answered and looked once again down at the little boy. "Uzumaki Naruto, after his mother."_

_He held him so he could see Naruto's face clearly and giggle escaped the boy's lips while he reached out towards Minato. Minato smiled and he held out one hand to touch his face. It was soft and Tsunade could now see a smile, which reminded her of the old Minato. _

"_**Why so many smiles . . .?"**_

_Minato smiled towards her and then he felt tiny, warm fingers wrap themselves around his index finger. He instantly felt a warm feeling around his heart and deep down in his soul. He thought that feeling had died with his wife but apparently it still existed deep down inside him. That feeling was love. It was an indescribable feeling, but it was a feeling that many others had felt and many others will feel. With this feeling, he knew and will always know that he was and is loved, but he also knew that he will give this feeling as well._

_He was loved and he, once again, loved._

"_LOVED! Holy shit! You think that you're loved, yeah right! You're doomed you prick!"_

_The little boy's blurry eyes studied Minato's hand with curiosity and excitement. It was the first time for him to actually see a hand so close and be able to take a closer look at it. He had never seen such a big__ . . .__ thing__ . . .__ before. It was something strange, like pointy, warm sticks that were stuck in a thick plate, or something._

_Tsunade smiled at Minato's facial expression when the boy giggled again and started to suck on the tip of his index finger that he held._

"_Sucking . . . on . . . his . . . disgusting . . . little . . . finger . . . I think I'm going to puke . . ."_

"_He seems to like you__ . . .__ a lot," Tsunade observed, while Minato moved the boy closer to his body so he would lay more comfortably and feel safer._

"_I hope so," Minato said. "Hey there. You seem to like my hand, don't you?" He used a high-pitched, childish voice that any parent would use with a baby._

"_**Yep, I'm definitely going to puke any time now."**_

_Naruto looked up at him and smiled a wide, toothless grin, which resembled Minato's 'foxy grin.' It was the smile that all the people in Konoha had seen on the Fourth Hokage for as long as they knew._

_Just then a loud roar broke through the happy moment between father and son as Minato looked in horror towards the window. It was __Kyūbi__: The nine-tailed fox, the most powerful and horrifying among all the tailed beasts. _

"_No__ . . .__" Tsunade said, paling._

"_HELL YEAH YOU BITCH! The fun is about to begin! Where's the popcorn!?" _

_Naruto's happy face became worried and scared and soon his eyes were filled with tears. He started to shake. Minato readjusted him up against his shoulder, putting his own head on the smaller blonde's head._

"_It's okay Naruto. Shh__ . . .__ it's okay," Minato said, trying to calm Naruto, but Naruto only shook more, and more tears came streaming down his face._

_Minato grew increasingly concerned, as he couldn't calm his son._

"_Damn it," he cursed silently. "It okay Naruto, daddy's here and he's going to protect you."_

"_**Protect? You're kidding, right? You're going to seal that awesome fox into that little pink thing! What**__**kind of protection is that?**_

_Naruto looked in many directions, still holding Minato's index finger in his hand. Minato could feel that the boy somehow knew what was happening._

"_**Yeah right . . . he's not even an hour old and he already knows how to use that pathetic thing between your shoulders called a brain . . ."**_

"_You have to go now Minato. If __Kyūbi__ enters Konoha__ . . .__" Tsunade never finished the sentence because Naruto started to scream loudly out of fear._

"_Shh__ . . .__ Naruto," Minato tried once again, using his free hand to stroke the boy's back. "It will be alright." He gently bounced him up and down a bit, in an effort to calm him, but the boy didn't stop screaming. Instead he shook even more then before. _

"_Scream! Scream! Scream! Come on! Scream some more!"_

_Minato was becoming frantic over his son's condition. He continued to rub the boy's back with soothing motions, gently rocking him back and forth until the boy's screams faded away and was reduced to sobbing. _

_Tsunade watched the desperate father with a smile. "You have to go now Minato. I'll take care of Naruto while you're gone," she said._

"_**Take care? Why don't you carry him out to **__**Kyūbi**__** at once instead of in two minutes?"**_

_Minato looked at her worriedly. "I__ . . .__ I don't know if I'll be coming back," he told her. His hair covered his eyes, so she couldn't see them._

"_What do you mean? Of course you will come back. That monster won't be able to take you down Minato," she said as Minato heard the rage in her voice._

"_MONSTER! You're the monsters, just look at you! How the bloody hell can you even look like that!? A body with something called skin which covers the blood I wanna see! Let the blood pour down form the skies!"_

"_I'm going to use the 'Shiki Fūjin,'" he told her._

_Tsunade went pale. "No, you can't do that!" she screamed as Naruto looked at the two adults with a scared face._

"_No you can't do that! Like__that will change his mind.__"_

"_I know that nothing else will work. This is the only solution," Minato answered her with a calm but sad voice._

_Tsunade couldn't believe what she heard. "But what about Naruto?" she finally asked._

"_What about Naruto . . .? Blah, blah, blah . . ."_

"_I hope that the villagers will treat him the way he should be treated. As a hero," he answered her._

"_**HA! You're making me laugh so much that my stomach hurts!"**_

_Tsunade looked confused at him. "Hero? Why?" she asked again._

"_He will be the __Jinchūriki __ of __Kyūbi__," Minato told her, as Tsunade saw tears on his face._

"_You are going to turn your only son into a __Jinchūriki __," she said and it wasn't a question._

"_Of course he is, isn't that a nice way to tell your one and only son that he loves you?"_

"_He will be able to use the powers. I can already feel his own powers growing," Minato answered._

_Tsunade had the feeling that he was hiding something from her. "But he will be an orphan. He will grow up without parents! Do you want him to do that!?" she screamed. _

_Minato had never heard Tsunade scream at him like that before. "Do you think everything in life is perfect!?" he screamed back at her. _

_Tsunade hadn't seen him lose his temper before. "All the good comes with something bad and all the bad comes with something good. I know what I'm doing and you'll just have to trust me."_

"_Trust the big man and everything will be alright, just do what he says and go straight to hell . . ."_

_Tsunade was shocked. "Do it then, but I don't know if the villagers will treat him the way you want them to. __Kyūbi__ has already killed a lot of people and their relatives won't forgive __Kyūbi__ for that__ . . .__ they won't forgive your son," she finished in a sad voice. "They won't see an innocent child, they'll only see a monster."_

"_If that's the case, then they are idiots," Minato said firmly, really shocking Tsunade._

"_No they aren't idiots . . . they're idiotic idiots!"_

_He had never said something bad about the villagers in Konoha before. To hear him say such a thing was__ . . .__ unbelievable._

"_I want Naruto to grow up like any other child, so don't tell anyone that I'm his father__ . . .__ especially not to him," Minato continued as he studied Naruto's worried face. "However, if he asks about me or his mom when he gets older, just tell him that we loved him with all our hearts," he finished, finally handing Naruto over to Tsunade, who was still in a state of shock._

"_We love him . . . Yeah sure you do . . ."_

_A child's scream broke through the night__ . . ._

"_More screaming!" _

_. . .__a man looked at his son for the last time__ . . ._

"_Oh, boo-hoo . . ."_

_. . .__and he fell and fell__ . . ._

"_Hit the ground sometime damn it!"_

_. . .__into the never-ending darkness__ . . ._

"_**About time**__** . . .**__**"**_

Minato woke up with a jerk and he was breathing heavily. Cold sweat covered his face and entire body.

He remembered that night and he always would. He had failed Kushina that night and he had failed Naruto as well. He didn't want that to happen again. He can't fail Kushina again, but he could still fail Naruto again.

"It won't happen . . ." he muttered to himself and covered his face with his hands. He sighed and removed them. "You are trying to make me feel worse . . ." he said out loud and if someone had been in the room with him, they would have thought Minato was crazy.

"_**Just doing my job," **_Kaikou answered and laughed. Minato sighed again and fell back on the pillows. This was going to be a long night.


	24. A discovery about love

**Chapter Twenty Four: A Discovery About Love**  
_Written by MrsHellman January 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

* * *

It had now been nearly a week since Naruto woke up and Minato was with him every minute he possibly could, but for the moment he was on his own bed, reading a book about children with amnesia.

He had refused to leave Naruto's side as little as possible, but there was now one problem. Every night, he would dream the same dream and Kaikou would always be there. The dream wasn't just like any dream; it was a memory. A memory from the night when everything went wrong. The night when Kyūbi attacked Konoha, the night when he lost his wife Kushina, the night when he failed Naruto.

Kaikou would always come up with new comments about the memory and sometimes it was too much for Minato to take. It was the last memory he gained before he left Konoha and Naruto for fifteen long years.

_Welcome back, Minato. It's always a pleasure to see you. _

He would always say that at the beginning of the dream. He would mockingly welcome Minato like an equal, but the next comment would always be something that made him sad or angry. Since the dream always would begin with Kushina's death he would say something like:

_Oh my God, is she dead? How sad__ . . ._

_**Oh poor woman . . .**_

_Why isn't she moving? Has she lost her will to live? I can understand that just by looking at you freaks__ . . ._

Kaikou was the man that created sorrow. He created it, played with it, killed with it and enjoyed it. Minato sighed. Damn this! Damn everything! Why couldn't he just go away and leave him and Naruto alone!?

_**Because he enjoy**__**s**__** all of this**__** . . .**__** why else would he stay with you humans?**_ a voice said back in Minato's head.

Minato frowned. That wasn't Kaikou's voice, it was a much deeper and more . . . demonic. But who could that be? Kaikou was the only being, that Minato knew, who was able to be inside of his head, so who could this one be? Then it hit him . . .

"Kyūbi . . .?" he said out loud as a maniacal laugh was heard.

_**That would be me all right, **_Kyūbi answered as Minato frowned. This wasn't good. Kyūbi shouldn't be able to communicate with anyone other than Naruto.

If you had the Sharingan, maybe, but not like this. Naruto wasn't even in the same room as Minato.

One word went through Minato's head, and _he_ told _Naruto_ to watch _his_ mouth . . .

_Shit._

Kyūbi had talked with Minato and after that he had made sure that Minato wouldn't bother him anymore, or . . . at least he thought so, because Minato had been there after all, and what he had discovered both scared and confused him. It wasn't normal, not normal in the least. But enough about that. Minato was now in the corridor outside his and Naruto's rooms.

He was leaning against the wall, thinking, about things that he shouldn't have heard and still, he had. He sighed again and that would be . . . for the eighth time or something.

"Gotta figure out what all of this means. It was more than just some random occurrence," he said to himself as he looked at nothing in particular.

He sighed once more and looked at Naruto's door. It seemed like everything has something to do with Naruto or himself. They didn't go looking for danger and yet, they somehow always managed to find it, or it found them. He opened the door and walked in, closing it quietly, and sat down on the chair next to Naruto's bed. He looked at Naruto's sleeping form and was really glad that his wounds weren't as bad any more. His wounds were still visible, but most of them had healed and not a single one of them would be able to re-open. Some were even scars already!

"Ne . . . Minato-san . . .?" came Naruto's voice and at first, Minato was a bit surprised that Naruto was awake but he smiled.

"Yes? What is it Naru-chan?" he asked as Naruto's eyes opened.

As he looked at Minato, Minato's eyes widened when those blue eyes, so much like his own, looked back at him with so much sorrow and fear that he could feel the air get thicker by it.

"Why haven't my parents visited me?" he asked and Minato was taken aback by those words.

It wasn't a question he had expected, but he could understand why Naruto had asked it. Normally, the parents of a child would visit the child the whole time and even live at the hospital with him or her, but since Naruto didn't know that Minato was his dad, it was harder to explain. But . . . should he tell him? Maybe now was the right time for Naruto to know? But he's suffering from amnesia so when he regains his memories, maybe he would hate Minato for not telling him earlier or for telling him at all!

Minato looked away from Naruto. Should he or should he not?

"Minato-san? Please tell me," came Naruto's voice again as Minato looked back at the boy once more. This time, Naruto's eyes were more confused than sorrowful, but Minato could still sense the sadness in the air.

"I don't know how to tell you this Naruto, but . . ." Minato couldn't continue. He still didn't know if he should tell Naruto or not, maybe he should come up with something else instead. It wouldn't be lying would it? He was doing it for Naruto's health. Information like this can affect the involved person or persons pretty bad mentally. It would only be a white lie, wouldn't it?

"Has something happened to them?" Naruto asked as Minato could feel the fear coming from Naruto and it was growing every minute.

"I'm going to be honest with you . . ." Minato said and took a deep breath. "But I would like to know if you remember their names."

"No . . ." answered Naruto with tears in his eyes, "No, I can't remember their names . . . gomen nasai . . ." he said and dried away a tear that had managed to escape.

"Don't be sorry Naruto. It's okay," Minato assured him but Naruto didn't look convinced.

"Well . . . let's being with your mom, shall we," Minato said as Naruto concentrated so much on holding the tears back that he couldn't hear Minato's voice was trembling a lot.

"Her name was Uzumaki Kushina but . . . she isn't alive . . . anymore . . ." Minato said as Naruto's tears fell. "But Naruto, listen to me. She loved you very much and I can assure you that she didn't leave this world by choice. She wanted to see you grow up to a man," Minato said and tried his best to not complicate this too much. Naruto wasn't in a fifteen-year-old mind anymore. He was a three-year-old, both physically and mentally.

Naruto nodded but the tears wouldn't stop falling.

"But you should also know that she didn't just leave us recently," Minato continued as his eyes stung terribly now. "She died while giving birth to you. She was . . ." Tears were now falling down Minato's cheeks. "Like I said before, she loved you very much . . ."

"Okay . . ." Naruto said and smiled a weak smile but it wasn't very convincing. "But what about my dad then? Is he alive?"

"Yes . . ." Minato said and closed his eyes. Time for the hard part. "Yes . . . he's still alive . . ."

"Good . . ." said Naruto and smiled a real smile. "I thought I was imagining things," he said again as Minato frowned. "If my dad wasn't alive, why would you be here right now with me?" Naruto smiled again as Minato's eyes were about to pop out of his head.

"Wait . . . what are . . . how . . . what the bloody hell!?" he screamed as Naruto looked at him with a scared, amused and happy look, all at the same time too. Scared because Minato was acting like a maniac, amused because Minato's face was priceless and happy because it really was the feeling he felt right now. Minato was has dad.

"You are my dad aren't you?" he asked and Minato didn't know what to say.

"Well . . . yeah . . . but how did you know?" he asked, feeling a bit scared. What if this wasn't what it looked like?

"You're always so nice to me and you're always visiting. Oh, and Tsunade-baachan gave me a mirror one day to show me what I looked like since I didn't know. I had forgotten that, but when I saw myself I thought I was seeing you at first. So . . . I put two and two together and figured it out," Naruto explained as Minato buried his head in his hands. He shook his head and sighed.

"You're three and you figured that out on your own . . ." he muttered under his breath and he just knew that Naruto actually being fifteen had something to do with this.

"Minato-san . . .?" Naruto asked again as Minato looked up at him.

"Hai?" Minato answered and looked up at Naruto's big blue eyes. "What is it?" he asked again as he dried away the tears from Naruto's cheeks.

"Ano . . . I was wondering . . ." Naruto said with a small voice as Minato frowned, he was up to something. "I was wondering if you could . . ." Naruto whispered the last part so Minato couldn't hear it. He asked Naruto to say it again and then he noticed the huge blush Naruto had across his cheeks and neck.

"I-was-wondering-if-you-could-tell-me-what-love-is!?" Naruto practically shouted straight out. Minato smiled and then chuckled. Naruto didn't know that?

Maybe it was something that he barely felt and wanted to talk about. Minato's face fell at the thought. Naruto had never felt love? That wasn't right, he should know what love is. He should be able to feel love too!

Naruto looked at Minato with hesitation. Maybe he shouldn't have asked that but since both of them knew that the other knew about the trait it should be much easier than if he asked a nurse in the hospital. Naruto's face fell. Maybe Minato doesn't want to get too close to Naruto and . . .love him.

"It's hard to explain what love is exactly, but it's an emotion that everyone feels sooner or later in life," Minato explained. Naruto was a bit surprised that Minato actually answered his question.

_To be in that place must have __damaged__ his mind much harder than I first thought, _Minato thought as he frowned, but quickly replaced it with a smile when he saw that he had caught Naruto's attention.

"Love is like . . . it's hard to explain, really hard actually, but I'll try okay?" Minato asked and smiled at Naruto with a really warm and . . .loving smile. "It feels like your heart and entire being . . . just flickers or . . .flutters. It's like you're floating on air maybe even falling, maybe soaring, maybe swirling, jumping, spinning, leaping, bounding . . . there are so many things you an use to describe love, but none of it can explain what it really is like until you feel it for yourself," Minato said as Naruto looked confused and relieved.

"But it can take many different forms. Many, many different forms. So many forms, it is uncountable, indescribable and just unbelievable. But each and every single form gives you a very good feeling inside. You can spend your life studying each type of love, but in the end, it only results in happiness and . . . or perhaps . . ." his voice dropped very low, " . . .sometimes even pain, grief, sorrow, distress and regret . . . it really is one of the best feeling we can feel, but also the most dangerous one."

Naruto thought about if for a moment. Love was something that could bring both happiness and sorrow? It must be a very powerful emotion and feeling if it can do both. But how can it be like that at the same time?

"I don't understand. This can bring so much happiness and at the same time make someone sad?" Naruto asked in confusion and with a deep frown on his normally soft and flawless forehead.

Minato laughed. "Love is like . . . sweets! It's so good to eat sweets because it's so good and you just really like the taste, don't you?" Minato asked as Naruto nodded with a little smile, sweets really were something delicious. "Anyway, if you eat too much sweets, you'll get a toothache and after a while you will eventually get holes in you teeth and that will hurt pretty bad," Minato explained as Naruto nodded in agreement.

"It's the same thing with love. It's a sweet and pure thing that you really want to have. But if you get too much of it, it can lead to grief and sorrow. You may love someone and then you loose that person whom you loved. It may be something that you did or something that someone else did. If you love someone so much that you'll give anything for that person, you'll eventually do bad stuff. Sometimes . . . you can even . . . kill for love," Minato said as Naruto's eyes went wide.

Love can bring happiness, but it can also lead to something as bad as death? Naruto felt a chill down his spine and it wasn't a good one. He wanted to leave that part of the conversation, and quick.

"Um . . . what kind of love are you talking about then?" Naruto asked as Minato thought about it. He also noticed that Naruto wasn't comfortable with the whole killing thing and that love could be a cause of it.

It was a pretty hard question, but life is full of those. In order to get anywhere, questions need to be asked, and answered, if possible.

"You can love your parents," Minato said with a huge smile that was identical to Naruto's at times. "You can love your sister or brother, you can love a pet, you can love a person that is very close to you but is not a relative. But that kind of love is little different from the love you give to your brother, sister, mom and dad. That kind of love involves more than just feelings," Minato went on, noticing that Naruto was pretty curious about what he was talking about. "And that is something that you'll understand when you get older, okay?"

"Hai, hai," Naruto said as Minato blushed a bit.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them and Naruto didn't know what to do. He had asked that question and he got an answer on it, so he should be happy about that, shouldn't he? But the problem was . . . even though Minato had explained what love was in detail; he still couldn't understand why it hurt so much in his heart to think about Minato. It was confusing and sad. He really liked Minato, but why did it hurt so much to think about him and to want to be close to him?

"Ne, Naru-chan?" Minato asked, breaking the silence. Naruto looked up at him with confusion in his eyes, but Minato could see sadness behind them also.

"Hai . . .otou-sama?" he answered.

Minato was a bit taken aback when he heard Naruto calling him otou-sama. He had called him dad, in the past and it made Minato's heart flip, but now he had called him otou-sama and not tou-san.

You only use an o in front of the name (title) when you want to be polite and formal. And to use sama . . . even though Minato was the Hokage, his own son shouldn't use that when speaking to him. It should be tou-san not otou-sama and not even tou-sama!

"Just call me tou-san, okay?" Minato corrected him, gently as he noticed the blush on Naruto's cheeks. "Anyway, I've got something I want to tell you, guess what it is," he continued as Naruto looked confused again, but at the same time he looked curious.

"I don't know," Naruto said with a frown, as Minato smiled.

"Well, I'm guessing that you've heard blonde jokes before, right?" Minato asked as Naruto grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

"Have you heard about the inventions blonde people created?" he asked, and Naruto shook his head.

"So you're telling me that you've never ever heard or seen a water-proof towel?" Minato asked with a raised eyebrow.

It didn't take long before Naruto laughed.

"I haven't heard of that before," he chirped as Minato smiled. It was good to see Naruto laughing after such a serious talk about love.

"Hm . . .how about this one. Have you heard about the 'Glow in the dark sunglasses?'" he asked as Naruto laughed again.

"No," Naruto giggled.

"Hm . . . what about . . . Solar powered flashlight?" Minato asked again as Naruto laughed harder. Minato couldn't resist laughing himself.

"Okay, how about the submarine screen door then?" Minato asked with a smirk.

"No . . . hmf . . ." giggles escaped Naruto's mouth as he tried not to laugh.

"A book on how to read?" Minato raised an eyebrow.

"Hmf . . . n-no!" Naruto giggled again as Minato chuckled.

"An inflatable dart board!?" Minato exclaimed, with a look on his face that said 'God I'm smart' and that made Naruto laugh so much that he closed his eyes and really guffawed out of joy.

Naruto laughed so hard that tears were falling down his cheeks. He held his stomach and even though it really hurt to laugh this much, he ignored it, because it felt too good to laugh. The jokes Minato came up with were so funny that he couldn't resist laughing. How often do you see a book in a bookstore on learning how to read?

It was really funny.

"Have you ever seen or heard of . . . a dictionary index?" Minato asked as Naruto laughed again.

"HA!" Naruto was really having fun right now.

"Okay . . . last one . . . reusable ice cubes?" he asked between laughs.

The two blondes were laughing like maniacs until one of them finally fell asleep and the other one went back to his room, soon falling asleep as well.

_Minato was looking at nothing in particular and it was pretty logic__al__ since everything around him was pitch black. __Kyūbi__ had not even showed himself.__ Suddenly, he wanted Minato to get out of there as quickly as possible, but why?__ Since he could__n't__ see anything he had to re__ly__ on his other senses, so he listened carefully __for__ something that m__ight__ give him a hint._

_It wasn't much, but he could feel this strange feeling in the pit of his stomach, something was intruding __into __his mind. But __just __then he heard two voices __that__ he recognized at once. It was __Kyūbi__ and Kaikou, but why would the two of them be talking____? _

_Minato walked towards the __sound of their voices,__ and after what felt like five or ten minutes, he came to a room of some sort. It was big and round with nothing inside if except for two huge red eyes looking at a black person standing in the middle of the room. The eyes belonged the to __Kyūbi__ and the black man was Kaikou._

_They were __arguing__ about something, but Minato __couldn't make out all the words__. He sneaked closer and wondered if they knew __if__ he was there or not. They should since both of them are __supernatural beings__; __did they want him to overhear their conversation__?_

_**"You can't just pop up in people's minds **__**like that, **__**you giant furball!"**__ Kaikou suddenly shouted. __**"If he finds out, we're in deep shit! Can't you get that **__**through your head, **__**you **__**mentally**__** disordered fox!?"**_  
**  
**_**"Who do you think you are to talk**__**ing**__** to me like that? I do as I please, and I don't give a damn if your 'outstanding' plan goes to hell!" **__Kyūbi__ retorted with clear annoyance in his deep voice. __**"Everything isn't about you and your so called boss a.k.a the Shinigami. We made a deal and if you won't keep your word, you know what **__**will happen**__**!"**_  
_**  
**__Minato was listening with a confused look on his face. What were they talking about? __What deal had they made__?_

_**"If you're going to talk with Minato again, you tell me about it **__**first**__**!"**__ Kaikou shouted __angrily as__ Minato made a face because Kaikou's voice was __so loud._

_**"Yeah, yeah, whatever you oversized piece of coal. But if you wanna get what you want you'll listen to me as well. If you screw this up because of your pathetic thing called a brain, I'll screw up too! And you certainly don't want that to happen," **__Kyūbi__ said with venom __in his__ voice._

_**"Don't get cocky with me, fox-bastard. You need my help in order to get out **__**from**__** the prison inside Naruto, don't forget!" **_Kaikou reminded him.  
_  
__Minato's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.__ Break free from his prison? But then Naruto will__ . . .__this can't be happening! He must have heard __wrong__, right? _

_Kyūbi__ sighed __and Minato got Goosebumps from the strange sound. __**"I know **__**you idiot**__**, **__**I haven't forgotten and it's not like you would ever let me**__**.**__**But maybe you have**__** forgotten that you need my help **__**as well so you can**__** get Minato back to Shinigami? **__Kyūbi__ retorted._

_Minato paled and his eyes were nearly popping out of his head. This was not good.__ Now he understood the 'deal' these two had made. It spelled trouble for both him and Naruto, if he couldn't find a way to stop them. __If these two got their way__ . . .__ Naruto would die and Minato himself would go __back __to Shinigami's stomach and live there for eternity__. __He could not let that happen!_

_**"No, of course not. But before I help you, you have to do what I ask first," **__Kaikou said, with an __evil aura around him.__ "__**The only way to get to Minato is through his son**__** . . .**__**by hurting Naruto, and **__really torturing him, we'll__ hurt Minato as well__," at this a wicked smile was plastered on __Kyūbi__'s face at the thought of torturing; it sure was something he could do __well._

_"__**I want you to torture Naruto as much as possible mentally, however you can. This will hurt Minato as well; it will be worse than death for him to see his son suffer so much **__**and once**__** Naruto is broken, Minato will soon follow, then I can easily get him back to Shinigami**__**," **__Kaikou explained. From his hiding spot, Minato __realis__ed how evil of a man Kaikou really was__ . . .__ or whatever you call him._

_**"So, if I do this, you will keep your end of the bargain and set me free?" **__Kyūbi__ asked, skeptically._

_**"Of course,"**__ Kaikou answered. "__**But we need to do this quickly. I have to complete my mission to get Minato back to Shinigami. The contact must be fulfilled and it's my job to make sure it happens!"**_  
**  
**_**"Fine. **__**I'll fulfill my end of the bargain, b**__**ut I warn you, if you go back on your end, you'll live to regret it**__**,"**__Kyūbi__ growled and even though the threat wasn't towards Minato, he couldn't help himself from trembling._

_"__**But I'm the un-dead," **__Kaikou chuckled at the fox. __**"Which means that I can't die or live to have regrets," **__he continued. __Kyūbi__ growled._

_"__**Don't mock **____**me **__**you pathetic creature! I'm not the nine-tailed demon for nothing,"**__Kyūbi__ warned_ _with a deep voice, giving Minato the shivers. _

_ He felt sick to his stomach. What could he do now?_ _He looked down at his feet and then closed his eyes for a moment. He reopened them and looked back at Kaikou and __Kyūbi__ and __suddenly, __his eyes widened._

"_**Behind you," **__a deep, familiar voice said, and then a hand grabbed Minato around his neck._

_Kaikou thr__ew__ Minato across the __room__ and even though __the ground wasn't visible, __it really hurt when he hit the ground again. Minato closed his eyes from the pain and cursed silently while Kaikou walked towards Minato with angry steps and a dangerous aura around him._

"_**So you heard**__** our**__** conversation, huh?" **__Kaikou asked a__s__ Minato looked up at him but didn't__ answer__. __**"You really are dense, you know that?" **__Minato still didn't __reply__._

_Kaikou sighed. __**"Why are you making this so hard **__**on**__** yourself?" **__he muttered under his breath and walked the last __few __steps towards Minato. He lifted Minato by his collar and Minato could feel his feet dangl__ing__ over the floor._

_Kaikou thr__ew__ him again and this time harder than before. When Minato hit the floor it knocked the air out of him with so much force that his lungs actually hurt pretty badly. He had his eyes closed and when he opened them he saw that Kaikou was hovering over him with only a few __decimetres__ between their faces. Minato acted quickly.__He kicked his legs in an upward motion into Kaikou's stomach, giving him enough time to scramble __out __from underneath the man._

"_**You idiot!" **__Kaikou screamed a__s__ Minato could hear that he was more than just __a little __pissed. __**"Do you really believe that you just can come here and listen to our conversation and get out of **__**here**__** without a single scratch!? We were talking in private!"**_

_Minato frowned at Kaikou's way of acting but decided to ignore it since Kaikou was now trying to slit his throat._

_Kaikou had regained his posture as soon as Minato __got away.__ Minato grabbed three kunai and threw them in Kiakou's direction, hoping that they would hit their target, but his __hope was__ in vain. Kaikou caught them with ease and smirked. Since this was Minato's mind he was the one who decided what he would use as weapons._

"_**You'll never learn will you? I'm one of the un-dead, dammit! You really think that you can hit me with something as simple as kunai?"**__ Kaikou __asked,__ throwing the kunai back __at__ Minato._

_Minato quickly dodged the three before a forth one __lodged__ itself in Minato's shoulder. __Wincing__, Minato ripped it from his flesh, ignoring his now bleeding and wounded shoulder. Kaikou let a maniacal smirk tug at his lips._

What the . . .?_ Minato thought and looked at the kunai in his right hand. How could a fourth kunai appear, this was his mind, wasn't it? He __should be deciding__ what happen__s__, but __yet__ . . .__Kaikou wasn't someone to __neither trust nor underestimate._

"_**Just so you know**__** . . .**__** I can't feel any pain," **__Minato lied as the smirk left Kaikou's lips while Minato __tossed__the bloodied kunai to the ground._

"_**You **__**really think I'm that stupid? I know it hurts like **__**hell," **__Kaikou answered as Minato gulped._

_Minato charged __at__ Kaikou with an emotionless outside, but his inside was full of emotions that could burst __at __anytime. Kaikou smirked again as he __took a __fighting stance. Minato threw a punch, which was caught by Kaikou. Minato winced a bit at the pain. Kaikou was strong and he was nearly crushing Minato's fist in his own. Minato was glad that he hadn't used his bad arm._

_Minato took a chance and __swept__ his leg around in an attempt to knock him over, which he did successfully. Kaikou was __then kicked __away from Minato a__s__ he hit the ground with a loud thump._

_Minato studied Kaikou closely as he stood up. He placed his hands on either side of his head and snapped it to the side making a 'popping' sound. Minato scrunched his nose in disgust as he frowned deeply._

"_**Well, it was**__**really **__**nice to**__**see**__**you again Minato, but you should learn to not interfere in other people's business. I**__**must**__**confess that we didn't notice**__**your presence **__**until our conversation had revealed our plans, but I'll tell you **__**thi**__**s;**__**you won't be so lucky next time,"**__Kaikou said a__s__Minato gulped again. He knew that it wasn't a good thing that he had__been caught eavesdropping,__but still . . . he now had a new insight into the whole situation._

_Just__because Kyūbi and Kaikou had made a deal with each other to__succeed__with their 'missions'__didn't mean __they have everything under control.__The fact that Minato had heard the conversation was testimony to that. But how was __that possible in the first__place__? Kyūbi had felt Kaikou's presence before Minato did and had thereby tossed Minato out from his own mind. Kyūbi knew that Kaikou only visited him if they're supposed to talk about something important involving their plans. _

_But Minato was still there, wasn't he? Since Kaikou is connected with Minato's mind and Kyūbi with Naruto's mind,__it must__create certain . . . paths. When Kaikou and Kyūbi talk with each other, they have to leave a 'path' between them and their 'host,' or else they'll die. You can't live in a human being and go in and out from it as you wish; there are some rules that you have to follow._

_When Kyūbi was in Minato's mind, he had used a 'path' to get there; and by this 'path' Minato and Naruto__became__connected as well. Not so much that they can talk with each other freely, but just__enough__so they can feel each other's presence. Since Kyūbi is__in__Naruto, he's an'intruding object' in Minato's mind and it . . . feels different to be around. That's the reason why Kaikou and Kyūbi couldn't feel__Minato __there__. There was already an intruding object in Minato's mind and when Minato__showed up__, they couldn't feel him,__due to Kyūbi's presence being there and taking up so much space, being something new__. It also__was to Minato's advantage that it's harder to be seen or heard, being in his own mind. It's only natural for him to be there._

"_**We'll talk more later,"**__ Kaikou said and then disappeared into the darkness._

_Minato looked around and noticed that Kyūbi already left. That feeling he had had at the beginning was gone now too. It was the 'intruder' who had left, but he had also left something behind. It felt familiar and somehow relaxing, but what was it?_

_Naruto couldn't open his eyes; darkness was pressing his lids down. He tried to lift his arms, but they felt like they were made of iron. He wanted to scream from feeling so helpless, but he couldn't create any sounds __either__._

_Naruto didn't know how long he had been unconscious. Dimly, he tried to gather his thoughts; the last thing he could remember was that he was laughing at something. A joke. Yeah that's right, Minato had told him a lot of blonde jokes and it sure had been funny. But __now__ he was falling. But someone, or something, caught him. If felt weird and at the same time familiar._

_He tried to speak, but his mouth felt like sandpaper and his tongue was swollen from thirst. As feeling returned to his limbs, he became __somewhat __aware of his surroundings; it was dark but at the same time light. It was cold but at the same time hot, and it felt like he was being held between two different worlds. He could also hear leaves rustling along the ground, wind blowing through the trees, and a trickle of water somewhere. Was he outside or . . .? It did feel good, but it also felt horrible at the same time. He didn't know what was going__ on__, and it scared the living daylights out of him._

_Different animals, like birds could also be heard, chirping their morning songs. It felt like he was somewhere in the forest, in the early morning or late at the night. A soft breeze was playing across his face, moving his bangs gently across his forehead. It felt good. It was soft and calming. He __still felt both__ cold and hot. His face __was__ cool but his hands __were__ pleasantly warm, as though he __were__ warm__ing__ them in front of a fire._

_He could smell the scent of flowers, but he could also smell the scent of ashes, and the smell of the forest. But it smelled like a part of it was on fire and the part that wasn't burning contained a field with flowers. He could also smell himself slightly, the smell of someone who was sick, depressed and forgotten. But under these scents was another scent, an unplaceable one, the smell of another person, pleasantly familiar although Naruto couldn't put his finger on who it was. Naruto let the person's scent wrap around him. It was masculine and pleasant and at the same time it __reminded__ him . . .about sorrow and hatred._

Two blondes were breathing heavily. One was sitting up in his bed with his hand over his heart, while the other one was in deep slumber, trying to reach the person whose scent was comforting him.


	25. Itchy Blood

**Chapter Twenty Five: Itchy Blood**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky  
_

* * *

Minato was sitting up in his bed, breathing very heavily. He was thinking about the deal that Kyūbi and Kaikou had made.

_Damn it! _he thought and hit the bed with his clenched fist. What now? What could he do to stop them? It wouldn't do any good if he just approached them and tried to stop them on his own, he had to have a plan _and _people that could help him.

Jiraiya was gone now, and he might have been the only person to do it, but . . . maybe Kakashi, or why not Tsunade? She was the Hokage and one of the legendary Sannin, but . . .then again . . .Minato sighed. This was so frustrating! He looked at the clock; it was only 5am.

_Yep, this sure is frustrating,_ he thought as he ran a hand through his hair. He then grabbed the pendant around his neck and sighed.

Minato had to tear himself out of his thoughts when a knock was heard on the door.

He frowned, who could it be this late at night . . .or . . . rather . . .early in the morning?

"Come in," he called. The door opened and in stepped the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade.

"Tsunade-san?" Minato asked and looked at Tsunade with an even deeper frown. "What brings you here at this hour?"

"I've been at the Hokage tower the whole night and decided to stop by the hospital to check your condition on my way home," Tsunade answered as Minato nodded. She wanted to see if Naruto and Minato were okay.

"Oh . . .that makes sense," Minato answered as Tsunade smiled and closed the door behind her. She sat down on one of the chairs next to Minato's bed.

"I heard you breathing pretty heavily through the door just now, so I guessed that you were having a nightmare," Tsunade continued as Minato looked away with a shy smile while Tsunade's smile widened. "Even big boys can have nightmares, you know that, don't you?" She teased.

"Actually . . . yes . . ." Minato smiled again but there was no happiness in that smile, and Tsunade noticed this.

"What's wrong Minato?" Tsunade asked as Minato bit his lip.

"I'm worried . . ." he began after a few minutes of silence. "Because . . .well . . .I didn't have a nightmare . . ."

"Huh? What are you talking about you brat? Even if you're living through a memory again it's still just a nightmare and-"

"It wasn't a memory either, okay!" Minato suddenly shouted and Tsunade's eyes widened. Minato rarely lost his control so easily. He took a deep breath. "You know that Kyūbi and Naruto can talk to each other, right?" he asked as Tsunade frowned but nodded in understanding.

"Well, Kyūbi has caused trouble for Naruto from time to time and we don't know why, right?" Minato asked as Tsunade nodded again, confused. What was Minato's point? "Anyway . . . my point is that I do now . . ."

"Nani?" Tsunade asked, as Minato looked her straight in the eyes.

"Since the fight between Hebi and Tsuwamono I've . . .I've had this weird guy . . .in my head . . ." Minato said hesitantly as Tsunade's eyes were about to pop out of her head anytime now.

"What. Are. You. Talking. About?" Tsunade asked between clenched teeth, she was really pissed.

"I'm talking about an un-dead," Minato said as Tsunade's face stiffened.

"One of the un-dead . . .?" Tsunade whispered and Minato nodded. "But . . .if this guy is one of the un-dead, it means that . . .well . . .the un-deadis a name, a collective name, for beings that are deceased yet behave as if alive, so . . .what the bloody hell are you talking about Minato?"

"I know what he is and well . . .he himself says that he's a helping hand to the Shinigami," Minato said and swallowed nervoulsy, while Tsunade closed her eyes and bowed her head. "He says that he has a mission to complete and that mission is to bring me back to the Shinigami . . ."

"Kuso . . ." Tsunade cursed and looked up at Minato before burying her face in her hands. "How long has it been since he showed himself in your mind?"

"I'm not quite sure actually . . .maybe a month ago. He may have been in my mind since I came back here to Konoha alive again . . .I don't know . . ." Minato answered.

"But why didn't you tell someone earlier about this? We could have helped you," Tsunade asked as Minato sighed. "Okay . . .I get it . . .you're just like Naruto," Tsunade stated as Minato looked up at her with a bemused frown. "He doesn't want to bother people with his own problems, he just want to solve problems that actually . . .don't concern him."

"Maybe you're right about that part," Minato said and smiled, as did Tsunade.

"Anyway, I wanna know more about this guy . . .what's his name? Er . . .does he even have a name?" Tsunade asked. Minato looked a bit troubled but Tsunade didn't care, she just wanted to help Minato and Naruto so she needed to know what was going on.

"His name's Kaikou. He looks exactly like me but . . .he's more of a shadow imitating me so I don't know if that's his real appearance," Minato explained, without looking at Tsunade this time.

"Hm . . .he looks like you, you say?" Tsunade asked as Minato nodded. "Kuso . . . this isn't good."

"What are you talking about?" Minato asked and now it was Tsunade's turn to look troubled.

"Well, there's a reason why he looks like you, right? Normally, if someone or something is following or hunting you, they don't look like you. They've got their own personality but this guy . . .he looks just like you!" Tsunade exclaimed as Minato frowned.

"But what's so bad about that?" Minato asked again because he didn't quite understand what Tsunade was getting at.

"It's worse than bad, you got that?" She asked as Minato nodded. "Well . . .since he looks just like you . . .just . . .let's say that his position could be the Shinigami's right hand, okay? It's very hard to explain all of this, but you have to know that this guy is more than just one of the un-dead," Tsunade explained as Minato was even more confused. "He is an un-dead okay, _but_ . . .he's an un-dead with benefits-"

"You only confusing me even more Tsunade-san," Minato interrupted.

"It's so hard to explain Minato, but you have to understand, don't mess with this guy, he's more powerful than you think," Tsunade said, causing a chill to run down Minato's spine, even though he didn't feel scared.

"Okay . . ." Minato said feeling a little unnerved by what Tsunade said.

Tsunade looked sad. "Tell me if anything else happens between you and . . .Kaikou, promise me that," she asked.

"I will," Minato said as Tsunade smiled again.

"So tell me what happened this time. You said that you had a nightmare, but it wasn't quite a nightmare," Tsunade inquired as Minato swallowed again.

"Well . . .I saw Kaikou," Minato started as Tsunade's eyes went wide just like they did before.

"W-what?" Tsunade stuttered.

"I said that I saw Kaikou," Minato repeated.

"Yes, I heard that, but you know what I mean," Tsunade growled a bit pissed but Minato could hear very clearly that she was more worried than pissed or angry.

"Kaikou was in my head talking to . . .Kyūbi-" began Minato but got interrupted.

"What the bloody hell!?" Tsunade shouted while Minato had to cover his ears in an attempt to escape getting a hearing impairment.

"Shh! You don't want to wake Naruto up, do you?" Minato chided her as he uncovered his ears.

Tsunade was standing up now, looking really pissed. "What the bloody hell are you talking about Minato?" she asked, shaking out of anger.

"Kyūbi got into my mind so he could talk with Kaikou," Minato explained.

"And why is that?" Tsunade asked impatiently.

"They formed a plot," Minato explained as Tsunade bit her lower lip. "They were talking about this deal and I got to overhear what it all was about and well . . .I told you about the part of Kaikou getting . . .my soul back to the Shinigami . . .and the other part of it is to free Kyūbi," Minato finished as he looked at his hands.

"You're kidding, right?" Tsunade asked as Minato shook his head; she sat down in the chair again with a loud thump. "Shit . . ."

"Hey . . .just because you're the Hokage doesn't mean that you can speak like that," Minato muttered under his breath. Tsunade sent him a death glare that could put the Uchiha glare to shame.

"Shut up brat . . ." she muttered back as Minato snorted.

"I'm dead serious about this . . .I can't let this happen. If Kyūbi breaks free, Naruto will die and if Kaikou gets my soul, I'll die too . . .and leave Naruto . . .even if he is already dead . . ." Minato spoke quietly. Tsunade understood how much Naruto meant to Minato. Naruto was the only thing left for him and if Naruto died Minato would also die.

"But what can we do?" asked Tsunade and sighed. "About Kyūbi, I don't know so much about that demon but if we could seal him away so that he wouldn't be able to give Naruto his chakra, maybe we'll have a better chance in saving you both," she suggested.

"Maybe . . .I only sealed away a portion of Kyūbi's chakra, giving Naruto access to the rest so that he could use it if needed," Minato explained as Tsunade nodded. "But . . .remember that black kunai? I left it as a key to Jiraiya that could either strengthen or weaken Kyūbi's seal. The seal naturally becomes weaker as the years pass, and in the event that it is broken Kyūbi will be released. So by using the key I should be able to seal away all of its chakra," Minato finished as Tsunade thought about it for a moment. Minato unconsciously touched the pendant around his neck again.

Jiraiya's death had hit her hard, so the mere mention of his name made her heart scream out of pain. She hadn't loved him as a lover; she had loved him as a very close brother.

"That may work but there must be a catch," Tsunade finally answered as Minato frowned.

"I don't really know about that, but I do know that Kyūbi respects me since I can seal him away for good in either Naruto or me and I guess that he respects Naruto a bit as well. Something else that I know is that while Kyūbi initially complies with Naruto's requests out of curiosity, it later does so in an attempt to further its influence over Naruto and weaken the seal. It also acts in order to preserve its own well-being, as Naruto's death would also result in its own," Minato explained.

Tsunade nodded again. "Yeah . . ." she mumbled and then sighed again. "But how are you going to seal the chakra away then?" she asked.

"Well . . .when I sealed Kyūbi's chakra I split it into two parts as Yin and Yang chakra. I sealed the Yang chakra into myself before I died and the Yin chakra into Naruto . . .so . . .if I can take the Yin chakra from Naruto and seal it into myself, he won't be bothered anymore by Kyūbi, but . . .I don't know how Naruto will feel about that . . ." Minato trailed off, as Tsunade smiled.

"Good point, but-" Tsunade stopped as Minato noticed that she just came to think of something.

"Tsunade-san?" Minato tried, but Tsunade just stared blankly in front of her. "Tsunade, please tell me. What are you thinking about? Is something wrong?"

Tsunade seemed to shake herself from her thoughts. "No, nothing's wrong but . . . you mentioned that you sealed the Yang chakra into your body and the Yin chakra into Naruto's, right?" Tsunade asked as Minato frowned but nodded. "Well . . .we still don't know how you ended up in Naruto's mind and stayed there for fifteen years, but I think that I understand it now . . .when you sealed away the two chakras, maybe it didn't work quite as you planned . . ." Tsunade explained as Minato understood where this was going.

"You mean instead of splitting up the two chakras, Yin into Naruto, and Yang into myself, that instead, they both accidentally got sealed into him, with me ending up in Naruto's mind?" Minato asked as Tsunade nodded. "But how did that happen? That would mean that technically all Kyūbi's chakra was sealed into one body but _two_ minds?" he asked again.

"That's the way it seems. You ended up sealing away both chakras into each of you but, I believe that the two chakras didn't want to be split like that so, instead, they had to be close to each other with the end result being that you ended up in Naruto's mind," Tsunade explained and shrugged..

"That actually makes sense, but we're not supposed to talk about how I ended up there-" Minato began but Tsunade interrupted him.

"It's just as important to keep you and Naruto alive, you got that?" Tsunade said sternly and Minato could hear that there was a threat behind it.

"Fine," Minato answered as Tsunade gave him an angry look.

"Don't act like it's nothing," she warned him again as Minato looked away.

"But back to the black kunai and everything," Tsunade asked again as Minato looked up at her again.

"Well, if I seal away both chakras I'm sure that Kyūbi won't break free, but . . .then I'll have all of Kyūbi's chakra inside me together with Kaikou . . .that can't be good," Minato said as Tsunade nodded in agreement.

"True, but there doesn't seem to be another way," Tsunade pointed out as Minato thought about it.

"I don't know. I . . ." Minato stopped and had a frown on his face. Something had just hit him, and it had hit him _hard. _

"I just got an idea," he said slowly and now it was Tsunade's turn to frown.

"Huh? Nani?" She asked and actually smiled.

"It may be risky but I think that it may work, you see, Kaikou wants my soul, Kyūbi wants his freedom, they are always talking to each other so-"

"AAH!"

A scream interrupted Minato. Minato and Tsunade looked at each other and then Minato understood; it was Naruto's scream.

"Shit!" Minato shouted and tossed the bed sheets away and hurried towards Naruto's room. Tsunade swore that he had used a jutsu to be that fast.

When Minato opened the door to Naruto's room, he saw that Naruto was crying and screaming as he scratched himself as if his whole body was itching.

"Make it stop!" Naruto screamed. At first Minato didn't know what to do, he just stood there in the doorway, seemingly frozen.

"Naruto!" his senses came back to him as he hurried over to Naruto's bed and tried to calm him down by calling his name as he tried to stop him from scratching himself. He was already bleeding.

"Naruto! Please! You've got to stop! Please Naruto!" Minato yelled over Naruto's screams. When that didn't work he ended up hugging Naruto tightly. Naruto couldn't scratch himself anymore since his arms were pinned to his sides, but it didn't keep him from crying and screaming.

"Make it stop . . .it hurts . . ." Naruto sobbed as Minato held him tighter; he knew that this was Kyūbi's work. Kaikou had told Kyūbi to make Naruto suffer.

"Shh . . .it's okay Naruto . . .everything will be fine . . .I'm here now," he said and tried his best to comfort Naruto.

Tsunade had also entered the room, but when she saw the condition Naruto was in, she gasped. She hurried to another room and if Minato didn't know her better he would have guessed that she ran away disgusted by the mere sight of Naruto.

After some more time had passed with Naruto still crying and screaming and comforting words from Minato, Tsunade came back with a little bottle in her hand.

"Make him take this and hopefully the itching will stop," she said as Minato looked at the bottle with the liquid in it. "It looks like he has itchy blood," she continued.

"Itchy blood?" Minato asked and frowned as he tried to keep Naruto still. "I've heard of that. You can get that when you try to get clean from heroin, right?" he asked as Tsunade nodded, Minato's frown deepened.

"This _isn't_ heroin, this is something that Kyūbi has done," Minato said angrily as his body followed Naruto movements as Naruto struggled to get free so he could scratch the itch away.

"Make it go away! I don't like this! Make it go away!" Naruto screamed as Minato was gripped with fear. What the bloody hell had Kyūbi done!?

Minato held Naruto with both arms as Tsunade got a syringe ready so they could give Naruto an injection with the calming medicine. It wasn't just calming though; it would hopefully stop the itchy feeling Naruto had. She got herself a pair of gloves and then she took a clean syringe, a piece of paper and a plaster.

"Hold him as still as you can, if I don't hit a vein it'll take longer until if finally takes affect," Tsunade said, while Minato tried his best to keep Naruto still, but in the process, he was hurting Naruto because he had to hold onto him so tightly.

Tsunade quickly swiped and injected the liquid in Naruto's neck causing him to scream. His skin was very sensitive to any kind of contact and the needle really stung. Then she quickly put the plaster on so that he wouldn't bleed.

"AAH! It hurts! It burns! Make it go away!" Naruto cried, causing Minato's eyes to water just by watching Naruto's painful face. "It hurts . . ." Naruto sobbed. Finally the medicine began to kick in.

"Shh . . .it's okay Naruto, I'm here and I'll help you, okay?" Minato asked as he laid his head on top of Naruto's to comfort him.

"It hurts . . ." Naruto continued to sob, "It hurts so bad . . ."

Minato rubbed Naruto's back with calming circles. Naruto had stopped screaming but he was still crying and it seemed like he wouldn't stop for some time either. He had his fists clenched on Minato's chest and one of his fists was touching his own forehead.

"I'm scared," Naruto said with a hoarse voice as Minato sighed.

"I know and I'm very sorry," Minato said gently as Naruto blinked so that more tears streamed down his cheeks. "But I don't know what happened, can you tell me?" Minato asked as nice as he could, as he didn't want to push Naruto too much, but at the same time, he really had to know what had happened to make him cry this much.

"I don't know . . .exactly . . .but a big fury thing that looked like a fox said that someone close to me was going to die and . . ." Naruto sobbed again as Minato held him tighter with his free arm. "I don't w-want that t-to h-happen . . ."

"Shh . . .I won't let that happen, not as long as I'm around, okay?" Minato told Naruto as Tsunade looked at the scene in front of her. She got a déjà vu feeling, and then smiled a bit. Minato and Naruto were very close and Naruto could always seek protection with Minato.

"I'm going to my house to get some sleep, you should too," Tsunade said in a mothering way, as she walked out the door, closing it behind her with a small click.

Minato and Naruto sat together, with Minato continuing to hold his son for a half hour. Finally, Naruto spoke again.

"I made you something," Naruto said quietly, as he listened to Minato's rhythmical heartbeat.

"You did? And what would that be?" Minato asked as he tried his best to cheer Naruto up.

"When you told me those jokes not too long ago, I wanted to come up with something myself so this girl, Shizune . . .something . . .was very kind and helped me to come up with something and she wrote it down on a paper," Naruto explained as Minato cocked an eyebrow.

"Do you have the paper here?" Minato asked as Naruto barely nodded.

"It's over there," Naruto said and pointed at the bedside table with a shaky finger. Actually, Naruto's whole body was shaking pretty bad.

"Do you mind if I take a look at it?" Minato asked as Naruto shook his head. Minato picked it up with the hand that was rubbing Naruto's back.

"Do you want me to read it out loud for you?" he asked as Naruto nodded and looked up at the paper in Minato's hand.

"Okay . . .The first thing Kami created was the donkey," Minato began reading.

"You're a donkey," Kami says. "You'll work hard all day long and be called dense. You'll live twenty years," Kami finished.

"Aww . . ." the donkey answered, "It doesn't sound like a good life. Can't we make it five years instead of twenty?" the donkey asked. After a moment of thinking, Kami accepted it with a nod.

The second thing Kami created was the dog.

"You'll be called a dog," Kami said to the fury thing in front of him. "You'll live your life in submission, eat leftovers from the table and guard the house for your masters. You'll live thirty five years," Kami said as the dog sighed.

"Ouch, that doesn't sound that much fun. Can't I live fifteen years instead of thirty five?" The dog asked as Kami thought about it for a moment and then he accepted it with a smirk.

The third thing Kami created was the parrot.

"You'll be called a parrot. You'll sit in a corner and repeat everything and anything that other people say and you'll be a huge irritation for them. You'll live for seventy five years," Kami said to the parrot.

"That sounds pretty tedious, can't we say fifty years instead of seventy five?" The parrot asked Kami as Kami thought about it for a moment and then he accepted it with a nod again.

And finally Kami created man.

"You're human, a man," Kami said to the thing in front of him that stood up on two legs. "You'll have a great life. You're clever and intelligent, so you'll live twenty years," Kami said, but the man disagreed.

"It really does sounds like a great life, but can't you make it a little bit longer?" The man asked as Kami thought that. For the first time, the man showed his intelligence.

"Can I have the fifteen years the donkey didn't want, the twenty years the dog said no to, and the twenty five years that the parrot wouldn't take?" The man asked with a frown and Kami grinned wide as he accepted it, he liked this creation.

So, that's why man lives with joy and freedom for twenty years until he gets married and has to work hard and be called dense for fifteen years. After that he has to live in submission, eat leftovers from the table and guard the house for twenty years. The last twenty five years of his life he'll sit in a corner and repeat everything and anything that people say to him, and of course he'll be a huge irritation to everyone."

Minato finished reading and saw that Naruto smiled again.

"Hope you liked it . . .dad," Naruto said as Minato actually dropped the paper.

"Uh . . .otou-san?" Naruto asked as Minato felt something stick in his throat. He still wasn't used to the fact that Naruto knew about their relationship with each other; he was just so happy every time he heard Naruto call him otou-san or dad.

"H-hai?" Minato asked, as he blinked and looked at Naruto.

"Are you alright? Didn't you like it?" Naruto asked. Minato saw the frown on Naruto face and that Naruto looked like he was about to cry.

"Why do you think that? I loved it Naru-chan!" Minato answered enthusiastically as he grinned. Naruto smiled again.

"Good! I'm glad! It took me a lot of time to finish it," Naruto said as Minato chuckled.

"You're pretty good at making stuff that people will like," Minato said, causing Naruto to frown at first, but then smile. "So it doesn't surprise me that this was good as well."

"Yay!" Naruto chirped as Minato couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's way of acting.

Minato suddenly hugged Naruto tight and Naruto was a bit confused by it at first and frowned, but after some time he hugged Minato back.

"Otou-san . . .is something wrong . . .?" Naruto asked. Then he felt something wet on his cheek, so he looked up and his eyes widened. Minato was crying.

"Otou-san!?" Naruto exclaimed and stiffened in Minato's grip. "Otou-san!?" Naruto yelled again.

"It's okay Naruto, it's okay . . ." Minato said between sobs.

"No! Otou-san is crying! It's not okay!" Naruto screamed as Minato hugged him even tighter.

"Naruto, I'm just so happy . . ." Minato answered as Naruto frowned again.

"No!" he screamed and tried to get free from Minato's hug. "You're not okay! You don't cry when you're happy! You cry when you're sad!" Naruto continued to scream as Minato tried to hold onto him.

"No Naruto! Listen to me!" Minato cried out, causing Naruto to stiffen at the harsh tone Minato used. "I'm okay, really, but I am happy. I'm happy that you're alive and well . . ." Minato explained. Naruto was confused. Why wouldn't he be well? What was wrong? Was there something wrong with him or was there something wrong with someone else?

"Iie . . .something is wrong, Otou-san . . ." Naruto said as the tears were once again streaming down his face, "Something is wrong . . ."

Minato looked at Naruto through the mist that only he could see because of _his_ tears.

"Naruto, really, I'm fine . . ." Minato lied. Naruto was right, he wasn't okay, but at the same, he really was happy.

Naruto was alive and had accepted Minato as his father, but still . . .Kyūbi and Kaikou had made a deal that worried Minato very much. It was probably Kyūbi who made Naruto scratch himself like he had, and Minato really felt bad about that. As if the word scratch was the trigger, Naruto started scratching his right arm again and Minato noticed immediately.

"Stop that, Naruto," Minato said, firmly as Naruto began scratching himself even more.

"But it's itchy," Naruto complained and scratched harder. Minato saw blood dripping from Naruto fingers.

"That's enough Naruto," Minato said in a hard voice when Naruto began scratching himself so much that even Minato's clothes became bloody. "Naruto!"

Naruto was scratching himself too hard and too much and Minato had to stop him. He tried to hold Naruto's arms against his body and succeeded, but then Naruto began screaming.

"Let go! It's itchy!" he screamed as Minato shut his eyes tightly even as Naruto's screams became louder and more tears streamed down his scarred cheeks.

"Naruto! You have to calm down!" Minato yelled over Naruto's screaming, but Naruto wouldn't listen.

Minato was a bit glad that Naruto couldn't move his legs just now because if he could this would have been much more complicated and violent.

_Kuso . . . Tsunade isn't here anymore and these walls __are so thick that __people three rooms from here __can't__ hear us if the door is closed, _Minato thought as he tried to hold on to a struggling Naruto.

"Please Naru-chan! Just try not to scratch yourself! Please!" Minato cried out again. He could see that Naruto was trying hard not scratch, but it was easier said than done.

After nearly twenty minutes of struggling, Naruto finally calmed down. His skin was still itchy, but his throat was sore and his muscles in his upper body hurt pretty badly since he had moved so much.

"It's okay Naruto . . .just please try to resist scratching yourself, okay?" Minato asked as he stroked Naruto's hair with one hand.

"But it hurts and it's itchy," Naruto sobbed again. Minato really didn't know what to do. Maybe he could use the liquid that Tsunade had used?

"Please don't scratch yourself. I'm going to get something for you that will make the itching go away," Minato said as he laid Naruto down on the bed again.

Naruto whimpered and tried really hard not to scratch himself anymore while Minato got up from the bed and tried to find that liquid Tsunade had used on Naruto earlier. Where could it be? She had used a syringe and she had filled it with a liquid that was in a blue-ish green bottle. Minato looked at the desk that was in the room and saw that there were more than just a couple of bottles there.

He was lucky; there were only one bottle that looked like the one that Tsunade had used. He soon found a clean syringe, so that he could inject it into Naruto's system. He got a plaster too.

"This is going to sting a little," Minato said as he turned towards Naruto who lay stiff in the bed, trying not to scratch himself. Tears still poured down his face like rain poured outside a very cloudy day.

Naruto looked at the syringe in Minato's hand as Minato cleant the area at the crook at Naruto's arm. He injected the liquid as Naruto hissed at the slight pain, but as soon as the drug made contact with his blood, the itching disappeared.

"It's gone . . ." Naruto said and Minato breathed out in relief.

"Good," Minato answered and watched as Naruto closed his eyes for a moment. "That's good . . ."

Naruto opened his eyes again and looked at Minato with a slight frown on his pale face. Minato noticed how much better Naruto looked than just a few days ago. He was eating a bit more now and soon he would be able to learn how to walk again.

"What was that feeling you had otou-san?" Naruto asked as Minato flinched at Naruto's choice of words, but he masked his shock quickly.

"I don't know Naruto, I don't know . . ." he lied as held Naruto's tiny hand in his own.

Naruto was soon asleep again and Minato smiled at his son's peaceful face. He should have left Naruto by now to go to bed himself, but he didn't want to leave Naruto when Kyūbi was messing with him. He thought more than twice about it then came to a conclusion.

It was very dark outside and nothing could be heard outside except for the wind playing with leaves up in the trees. However, if you listened very carefully, you could also hear two heartbeats and two people breathing next to each other. And if you turned your gaze towards Konoha's hospital you would see two blondes, one boy and one man, cuddled up close to each other on one bed in the same room.


	26. Rehabilitation

**Chapter Twenty Six: Rehabilitation**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_'Flashback story' is partly written by No More Masquerade_

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Everything was perfect. At least it looked like it from the outside, but on the inside, everything was in commotion.

"AAH!"

A loud, pained scream rang out.

"Stop that Naruto! If you continue to scratch yourself, things will end up really bad for you!" Minato shouted at Naruto as he tried to keep the scratching little blonde still. "You have to stop it, Naruto!"

"NO!" Naruto screamed in defiance as he tried to scratch his already bleeding arms. His wounds still hadn't recovered from the Tsuwamono incident yet; so all this scratching opened new wounds and re-opened the old ones.

Minato was very worried over this. The old wounds hadn't healed yet, and even for a normal person, the wounds would have closed by now, but something was really off that made Naruto's wounds heal much slower.

"Naruto!" Tsunade screamed from the doorway, looking at Naruto with very stern eyes.

Naruto looked back at her with lustrous eyes and both Minato and Tsunade could see the fear in those deep blue pools.

"I'm sorry that I have to yell, but you have to calm down," Tsunade told him in a much calmer manner and proceeded to walk over to Naruto and Minato with a frown. "I can give you that medicine so that it won't itch anymore, do you want that?" she asked as Naruto nodded hesitantly, still a bit frightened.

Tsunade calmly walked over to one of the cabinets and prepared a syringe for Naruto. It didn't take long until Naruto got injected and felt the itchy disappear. He sighed in relief as Minato, who had watched everything, smiled sadly and hugged Naruto closely.

Minato now knew for sure that Kyūbi was doing everything he could to hurt him by hurting Naruto. Naruto was his weak spot.

Minato looked out the window of Naruto's room thinking about all of this when he felt Naruto pull on a part of his trousers since he couldn't reach his shirt. His hands were held by his sides since Minato still had a grip around him.

Minato turned to look at Naruto and noticed that there was something bothering the little boy.

"What is it son?" Minato asked. He looked at Naruto's pale and worried face as he caressed one scarred cheek. Naruto blinked with one eye and swallowed hard while looking up at Minato.

"Ano . . .I've got this weird feeling . . ." Naruto answered and then looked away from Minato to avoid looking into the older blonde's intense blue eyes.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Minato asked again as he laid Naruto back down comfortably on the bed before sitting down on a chair next to him.

"Well . . .all the time . . .it feels like I'm not alone, as if someone else is here with me," Naruto explained. At first Minato was confused, but then he understood and his eyes widened. Naruto was talking about Kyūbi.

"How do you mean? Is it as if someone is always watching you, or that you can feel someone else inside you?" Minato asked, trying not to stress Naruto too much.

"The second one and it's like someone else is sharing my body with me and . . .it hurts," Naruto finished as his voice cracked.

"Naruto . . ." Minato sighed, with sadness in his eyes.

"There is a pain . . .in my stomach and that's not the only thing that hurts. My head and heart also hurt. It feels like something bad is happening and if that bad won't stop . . .you'll disappear," Naruto went on as the tears were threatening to fall from his eyes. "I don't like this feeling . . .or _these feelings_."

Naruto felt different because of these pains. He felt . . .unwanted . . .like a person who was never meant to be loved. Ugh . . .love again . . .that soggy, mushy word is no longer a part of his vocabulary because he felt he would never use it. His life felt like a dark, lonely cave waiting for someone to come along and light a match to make everything clear . . .and bright and perfect. He just couldn't find the exact words to describe the pain.

Even though he had talked about love with Minato before and he had said that it was like something sweet, these pains made it feel like nothing of that sweet ever had existed.

"It's okay to cry Naruto, sometimes you need it let it out," Minato told him, feeling like crying himself. Damn that Kyūbi. Damn that Kaikou! _Damn everything!_ "You know, there's nothing wrong with crying."

"Hai . . ." Naruto whispered and let the tears fall like rivers down his cheeks, letting nothing stop them.

"Shh . . .it's going to okay," Minato said in an attempt to comfort Naruto, but somehow he knew that it wasn't enough. "Just come to me if there is anything that's bothering you. That's why I'm here Naruto, I'm your . . . dad, and it's my responsibility as a parent to make sure that you're feeling well and safe," Minato finished as Naruto nodded, drying his tears away.

"Hai, Otou-san," Naruto answered as he smiled weakly and reached for his dad.

Minato took Naruto in his arms and hugged him tight. Naruto clenched his hands on Minato's chest and by so doing ended up with fists full of his shirt.

Suddenly, Naruto stiffened in Minato's arms.

Minato frowned. "Naruto . . .?" he asked and when he didn't get an answer he looked down at Naruto's face and was met with blank but tear-filled blue eyes that were wide. "Naruto!"

Naruto didn't even flinch as Minato tried his best to wake Naruto from his daze.

"Naruto!" Minato yelled as Naruto finally blinked, letting more tears fall. He was paler than before and he was trembling like a leaf in tree when it was stormy outside.

"W-what was-s tha-at . . .?" Naruto asked, as his eyes were still wide out of, what Minato could tell, shock, disbelief and horror. Yes . . .horror.

"What do you mean Naruto? What happened?" Minato asked in a worried voice as Naruto's lower lip trembled, but didn't say anything. "Please Naruto, if you tell me I can help you to get rid of it."

"A r-red f-fox . . ." Naruto whispered as more tears fell again, down his scarred cheeks and were dripping down on Minato's shirt, soaking it.

"Is he regaining his memories or is it just Kyūbi trying to scare him more than it already has done?" a concerned Minato asked a very exhausted Tsunade.

Minato and Tsunade were sitting in Naruto's room with Naruto asleep in Minato's arms. He was still squeamish because of Kyūbi's appearance in his mind. Tsunade was sitting in the same chair that Minato usually sat in, but since Minato was currently sitting on the bed she used it instead.

"I don't think that he is regaining his memories, but rather it's Kyūbi that's playing with him . . . again," Tsunade answered as she laid her head in her hands with a deep sigh. "This is so frustrating . . .irritating and . . . plain rough. Everything is happening to Naruto and it seems like destiny won't let you live happily together," she said and sighed again as Minato looked away from her sitting form.

"You're right about that, but that won't keep me from trying to be a good father," Minato answered determinedly as Tsunade looked up at him, but she only saw his profile and looked away again.

"I know that, you're as stubborn as ever, but there is something you should now," Tsunade said in a very serious tone that worried Minato even more than he already was for the moment. "Since Kyūbi is doing this to Naruto, there's a big chance he'll regain his memories and . . .well, the more Kyūbi bothers him the faster Naruto will remember."

"Is . . . is that bad or good?" Minato asked in a worried tone.

"Well, if you want to be an optimist and only look at the positive in this situation, Naruto will act more like he did before all of this happened, and perhaps even return to his original body, but that's pretty improbable, since he's been in this body for so long now . . ." Tsunade trailed off and looked at the clenched fists in her lap, her knuckles were already white and they were shaking. Her muscles were screaming for her to relax, but she didn't care.

"But I'm not an optimist . . ." Minato answered as he held the sleeping boy closer to himself. "I'm a realist. I do have hope, but I just can't ignore all the bad things that are and keep happening around us," Minato finished as Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"Baka," she said and raised her gaze to meet two intense blue that reminded her of the child that all of this was about. "You're a real baka."

"I know," Minato answered and his expression was still serious so Tsunade couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"Nnh . . ." Naruto moved in Minato's arms and snuggled deeper into the warmth and neither Tsunade nor Minato could help but smile.

"He's adorable," Tsunade said and smiled wider than before. "Just so adorable . . ." she sighed.

"Yeah," Minato agreed and laid his cheek on Naruto's blonde head. His son was adorable in every way possible and even Kyūbi couldn't anything to change that. Despite the fact that Naruto was covered in wounds and bandages, he was still Minato's adorable Naruto. "And that's the way it'll stay . . ."

Tsunade frowned. "You want him to stay like a three-year-old his whole life?" she teased as Minato sent her a playful glare.

"I didn't say that, but nothing can change the fact that he will always be my adorable son," Minato answered with a proud grin as Tsunade rolled her eyes with a sigh.

_Cocky bastard, _she thought and shook her head.

"Ne, Tsunade?" Minato asked, after a few seconds.

Tsunade looked up at him with a 'hm' and noticed the serious expression on his face. She frowned again.

"Remember when I told you something about Kyūbi when Naruto woke up and began scratching himself?" he asked as Tsunade nodded. "We also talked about the Yin and Yang chakra inside of our bodies."

"Do you want to tell me more about it?" Tsunade asked and straightened up in her seat.

"You have the right to know since . . .things can . . .screw up pretty bad if my plan won't work," Minato said with hesitation as Tsunade swallowed hard. "Can you promise me something?" Minato asked, avoiding Tsunade's worried face.

"What is this all about Minato?" Tsunade asked as Minato heard her concern and worry in her voice; it hurt him.

"Just promise me that you'll take care of Naruto if something happens," Minato answered as Tsunade eyes widened with fear and disbelief.

"What are you talking about? You'll be there for Naruto, you've promised him that," she said and tried her best not to scream so that Naruto wouldn't wake up from his slumber. "And why do you want me to take care of him?"

"What I'm about to do isn't immaculate. Nothing in this world is perfect so not a single plan is perfect," Minato continued, sighing. "My plan is not impeccable so if something happens to me I want you to be his guardian since I'm pretty positive that he won't turn back to his fifteen-year-old body. You were like a parent to me together with Jiraiya, so I trust you, but since Jiraiya isn't here anymore . . .obviously, I can't put this on him," Minato finished with tears threatening to fall from his lustrous eyes.

"I see . . . but are you sure that this plan of yours is something that you have to go through with?" Tsunade asked uncertainly clear in her voice.

"Yes, because my idea involves getting Kyūbi out of Naruto and Kaikou out of me, forever, and it just may work."

The days passed very quickly and it was already time for Naruto to learn how to walk again. He still had his wounds, but they weren't as bad as a month ago. They still weren't healing that fast, and Naruto would never be well enough to get out of the hospital by simply lying down. Naruto would heal faster if he could do excises that weren't too tough for him.

"Take it easy now Naruto, if you push yourself too hard, it will taken even longer for you to get better," Tsunade warned him, as she, Naruto and Minato were walking down to the hospital's swimming pool, in order for Naruto to begin his rehabilitation.

The first step for Naruto was to learn how to swim to a certain degree and after that he could begin walking on floors. To learn how to walk at once on solid ground would be too hard at the beginning, so Tsunade wanted to start off with swimming, since it was all around easier on the body.

"Okay Naruto, Minato will hold on to you the whole time. Just do as I say, you'll be fine, okay?" Tsuande asked as they walked through a corridor that lead to the swimming pool.

"Okay," Naruto answered, still feeling a little uncertain about this whole thing. He was being carried on Minato's right side. He was also still in his hospital gown. As soon as they got down to the pool, they were going to put normal swimming trunks on him, but since his wounds were like they were, they had to be extra careful.

Tsunade planed to use a kind of ointment that was transparent and very sticky on Naruto's wounds so that water couldn't get into the wounds as easily as if they didn't use this ointment. After the gel was applied, it would dry and seal the wounds, acting as protection.

"So Naruto . . . what colour do you want for your trunks?" Tsunade asked when they entered the hall where the swimming pool was. "You can choose between, black, dark blue, red, green and orange," she explained to Naruto who didn't even think before answering.

"Orange!" he yelled and grinned childishly. Minato laughed and Tsunade snorted in response.

"Orange it is then," she said and tossed Minato a small pair of trunks and then a bigger pair for Minato, which were orange as well.

Minato gave her a confused look as he looked at the trunks and than at Naruto, who was smiling, still feeling a bit unsure, but at the same time he was really happy.

"You want me to swim with him?" he asked as he frowned deeply.

Tsunade nodded. "Of course, baka! He can't swim alone in his condition. I want you to help Naruto use his legs as much as possible, but not so much that it'll hurt him, okay? It won't be that hard," Tsunade explained as Minato chuckled, feeling embarrassed about his earlier question.

"Fine, turn around then," Minato said as Tsunade turned her back towards him and Naruto with a smirk and walked over to a cabinet where she had the ointment for Naruto's wounds.

She could hear the rustle of clothes coming off and landing on the floor and after a few minutes Minato said that it was okay to turn around. She did, and looked at Minato with a smug expression, as he just rolled his eyes.

"Help Naruto take the hospital clothes off so that we'll be able to apply the ointment," Tsunade instructed as she picked up a pair p gloves from a drawer and another bottle from one of the cabinets.

Minato removed Naruto's small shirt, which even though it was in a small size, was still too big for Naruto. Naruto winced as he held his arms above his head. It wasn't that hard to do so since Naruto currently was sitting on a chair that Minato had put him down on.

When he had removed the shirt, they could see all the bandages around Naruto's small torso and even though the bandages covered up the wounds, Minato knew that the horrible wounds were under them. Not as horrible as before, but it wasn't something that was normal with small kids.

"It's cold," Naruto said and wrapped his thin arms around his trembling body.

"I know, but this won't take long, and when we're done putting on a liquid over your wounds, we'll put on your swimming trunks, and then you'll be going down into the warm water. Do you think you'll be okay until then?" Minato asked. Naruto nodded.

"This liquid is cold, but just like Minato said, you'll get down in the warm water afterwards so it'll be okay," Tsunade explained as she kneeled down so that her forehead was as high as Naruto's stomach.

"We'll remove the bandages and put this on, but you'll have to sit still to let it dry, think you can do that?" Tsunade asked as Naruto nodded. Both Tsunade and Minato noticed that he was shaking because of the cold.

"Come on Naruto, you can sit in my lap while Tsunade applies it, then you won't be as cold," Minato said as he picked Naruto up from the chair and sat down on it himself with Naruto in his lap.

Naruto leant back against Minato, making his back feel warm, as Minato wrapped his arms carefully around his little stomach, to keep that warm, leaving only his arms and legs exposed to the cold, so that Tsunade could fix them first.

"Better?" Minato asked as Naruto nodded, feeling much more comfortable.

At first, Naruto squirmed when Tsunade applied the 'cold, slimy goo' as Naruto put it, but by the time both arms were done, he was starting to get used to it, and when his whole upper body was finished, he was perfectly fine. Minato was glad that Naruto had remained calm during the whole process.

It was really hard on Minato to see Naurto's wounds. Every time he saw the wounds on his son, they painfully pricked at his heart. He sighed.

Minato proceeded to remove Naruto's trousers so that he was left in only birthday suit. Tsuande then applied the ointment to his feet, calves, knees, thighs, hips and lower back. Naruto was covered in the 'cold, slimy goo' and felt a bit uncomfortable at first, but soon got used to it. Minato dressed him in his trunks and admitted that he looked a bit funny with the ointment which had solidified and looked like plastic.

"Okay, that wasn't so bad was it?" Minato asked Naruto who was still freezing and looked longingly at the pool with the warm water.

"Can we go down into the water now?" Naruto asked, looking at Minato with a pout which was so adorable that Minato hugged his son, who squeaked but giggled.

"Yes, we can," answered Minato and stood up with Naruto in his arms.

"You'll need to be careful in there," Tsunade warned both Minato and Naruto as they looked at her with identical expressions on their faces; raised eyebrows, wide eyes, questioning looks and slightly parted lips. "This will be like going swimming with a little child for the first time, so Minato, when you first get in the pool, make sure that Naruto's face is close to yours and that you have eye contact the whole time. He has to feel secure and make sure that he can trust you no matter what, okay? You also have to hold him close to your body as well. As you both relax and feel more confident you can extend your arms and swish around a little and after that, when Naruto's a bit more secure with the water, lay him on his back with his head resting on your shoulder, so that his body is lying between your body and arm, but make sure that his head is above the surface. Then encourage him to kick his legs."

_That was a long description, better get going at once,_ Minato thought and smiled a bit. He jumped down in the pool with Naruto in his arms as Tsunade sat down on a chair close to the edge of the pool.

The pool was in an oval shape and was fairly large. It was pretty long and wide. It had a shallow end which started at two decimetres and ended at one meter. The deep end started at one meter and went over four metres at its deepest point.

"Put him down in the water, but you have to stay on the shallow side of the pool so that the risk of Naruto getting his head under water is slimmer," Tsunade instructed, making sure that everything looked okay.

Minato did was he was told and sat down with Naruto in his arms. He was sitting on his knees and Naruto's feet barely touched the water's surface.

"It's really warm," Naruto said when Minato put him down so that he was sitting on the bottom with his back against Minato and Minato's hands under his arms.

"You should be glad that it isn't cold then, or it wouldn't be so nice, now would it?" Minato said with a smile and Naruto who had held his arms over the surface the while time, and then putting them down in the water with an identical smile to Minato's.

"Yeah!" he said and began splashing a little in a childish way while Minato, not Tsunade, couldn't help but laugh.

This Naruto was something else. He wasn't like the Naruto Tsunade had gotten to know. But . . . this Naruto didn't know about Kyūbi and maybe that's why everything seems to be so peaceful around the boy's personality.

"Ne, otousan?" Naruto suddenly asked causing both Tsunade and Minato to look at the little chibi. "I was wondering something . . ."

"What is it son?" Minato asked and even though he was more used to Naruto calling him otousan, he still felt that joyful spark inside of him.

"Could you tell me about kaasan? You haven't said anything about her and I'm curious," Naruto asked as Minato stiffened for a moment, but grinned at the memories of his wife.

"Well . . . what do you want to know about her? There's a lot to tell," Minato answered as he sat down himself, but in deeper water so that he was facing Naruto instead.

"What she was like and . . . did she love me?" Naruto asked as Minato sighed. Of course she had loved him. "Maybe you can tell me how you met?"

Minato looked at Naruto's sparkling eyes that were just pleading for an answer, as Minato thought for awhile. "I guess I could do that," he finally said in a quiet voice.

_That morning, when the sun rose its tired, drooping head, it yawned a yawn so wide that it swallowed the world in sunlight. It shone on every surface, kissing trees on the hands and wrapping itself around trunks and branches. With its embrace, the sun brought out a green in the trees even the grasses scowled upon in envy. _

_The shade was hardly to be found, and when it was, it served as a cool dip out of the sun, which breathed upon the skin and warmed one to a shivering point. The wind brushed warm fingers over one's face and through one's hair, whispering a beautiful day, a beautiful world, and secrets of love unknown to all but those who will listen; secrets so unheard of that one would sit in the wind with one's hands cupped to one's ears._

_Minato Namikaze was looking out the window__,__ amazed by the beautiful city __stretching across the Earth__. He was sitting in a chair in his apartment that was located at the Eastern side of Konoha so he __might__ watch the sunset now and then. It was something that he __truly__ appreciated in his life; the beautiful world around him__:__ The world he lived in __and was, as most people are, a vital part of. _

_He watched with a soft interest as clouds skirted the sky, sweeping by smoothly, but lying down like sleeping women. They crawled towards the setting sun like water down an open drain. _

How many people, _Minato thought, touching longing fingers to the glass of the window,_ have looked upon these exact clouds; these clouds that carry themselves over us all? Just how many people share with me this moment as we all raise our heads to the setting sun?

_And as Minato thought, the sun responded with a gift of beauty for his divine inquiry. It let loose blazing pink beasts that trotted through the sky and played about the horizon. The sun's soft, blinding locks of hair deepened to oranges and pinks and encircled her face, blown wild by the wind of her land. The sun smiled a tandrid-orange smile to the world, and Minato smiled back. How grateful he was to the sun and her smiling face and prancing beasts. How generous she was to blow her soft kisses to him when she had so little to spare; how strongly this was reflected in the eyes of those who do not know how to smile. _

What a world I live in, _Minato thought again,_ to be able to embrace the sun as my sister and to receive her lasting departures.

_A knock interrupted his thoughts as he looked over towards the door__, but not __until he heard another knock did he decide to __answer__ it. He rose from his seat and went over to the door__, and when__ he opened it, __he came to__find__an ANBU standing __before him__ with his arms behind his back._

_The light in __Minato's __apartment was pretty dull__,__ so at first, __he could not see__the ANBU's face __clearly;__ but when Minato opened the door, the sunlight streamed in, and __he was__clearly seen __at last. _

_He immediately reminded Minato of bamboo. Though his muscles were clearly seen, as he wore the usual sleeveless shirt, he was thin and bony in many places. He looked as if he would bend in a strong wind and float like a twig in a river current. _

_His hair matched his body structure; a stringy bunch pulled back in a ponytail with the same circumference of Minato's thumb. And, on the subject, his fingers were like pencils with marble-like knuckles protruding so obviously it was similar to that of a nose on a face. Minato smiled at the man's scrawniness—it reminded him entirely of how small he had been; but that was long ago . . ._

"_Good morning, Minato-kun," the ANBU said as Minato nodded at the man._

"_Good morning to you, too," Minato answered and opened the door a bit more so that the ANBU __might__enter._

_The ANBU nodded a thank you and entered Minato's apartment soundlessly. The room in which they stood was not lavishly decorated; it was rather simple with a few things here and there and actually . . . only __what would__seem to be__ the most necessary things __were present:__ A bed, __several __chairs, a table and __a television._

_The ANBU was standing in the middle of the living room while Minato leant against the doorframe; he was looking at the ANBU with a light frown, wondering why he __had come.__ The ANBU was wearing the special chest armor __that__all ANBUs had to wear__,__ along with the reinforcing arm guards and the normal animal mask to help shield the ANBU's identity._

"_The Sandaime has sent me to assign you a mission," __said the ANBU quite__ formally._

"_Why didn't the Sandaime just send for me? Normally he assigns the missions himself," Minato __asked__as the ANBU nodded in agreement._

"_That's true, but things are different this time. It would take too much time for you to even go to the Hokage tower," the ANBU explained. This worried Minato. "So__," the ANBU continued,__ "I'm here to give you your next mission at once. It's an A-ranked mission and you have three weeks to finish it. Hopefully, it won't take you that long." _

"_What is the mission then?" Minato asked__,__ still feeling a bit confused about th__e__ whole change. Why did the Sandaime send the ANBU to his house and not call for him? __It was so unlike him that it had Minato to the point of bafflement._

"_You're going to help the villagers in the Village Hidden in the Forest," the ANBU __said__ as Minato frowned again__, __accounting on the fact that__ he had never heard of such a village. "The Village is located in the Whirlpool Country which isn't very well known __to most__," the ANBU went on as an answer __to__ Minato's unsaid thoughts. "There are only three villages in the Whirlpool Country__,__ and they are__:__ the Village Hidden in the Forest, the Village Hidden under the Moon__,__ and the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools."_

"_The Village Hidden in the Whirlpools?" Minato __echoed;__the ANBU nodd__ing in response._

"_Yeah, it's the smallest one, but the shinobi there really know what they're doing when they're on missions," the ANBU answered. It was Minato's turn to nod._

"_When do I have to leave?" Minato asked as he looked at the ANBU._

"_As soon as possible would be best," the __ANBU said. As if to show his agreement,__Minato went to his wardrobe and took out his Flak jacket and put it on. _

_It had front scroll patches on the right and the left breast and a zipper up the middle. The back also bore the red swirl insignia. _

"_You still haven't told me what the mission is about," Minato __said__as he lifted up his hitai-ate from a bureau. _

"_As you know, there has been natural catastrophes here in Fire Country__,__ and it seems like something similar has happened in the Whirlpool Country as well__,__ and it hit them harder than us__,__ so__,__ they need as many shinobi as possible to help them rebuild their villages__.__"_

"_But why only three weeks?" Minato asked as he tied his hitai-ate on._

"_Because you're needed here as well and the shinobi that are already there to help are only there a month and after that they're replaced by new shinobi from either another village or the same one," the ANBU __explained,__"Since you're a very skilled Jounin__,__ your help is needed here as well."_

"_I understand," Minato __said__ as the ANBU nodded and tossed Minato something._

_Minato caught it and looked down at __his hand.__ It was a scroll._

"_It's a map so that you__will easily__ find the Village Hidden in the Forest," the ANBU told Minato as he nodded a thank you. "__I must go.__Good day," the ANBU said__, bowing,__ and then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke._

_Minato looked at the scroll and then opened it. It was a map of the Five great Countries.__ His eyes instinctively turned to the Fire Country. Bordering its North Western regions were the Villages Hidden in the Waterfall, Grass, and Rain. Minato had been on so many missions that he remembered the three villages clearly. _

_Along the three villages, was the Earth Country, and separated by a strip of other, lesser countries, was the Wind Country. With all sun and not a cloud to be seen, Minato never enjoyed the Wind Country much. But the Water Country, across the sea and directly to the East of the Fire Country, was most certainly a place Minato enjoyed, along with the Lightning Country just above the Water Country. _

_Tapping the paper impatiently, Minato scanned again and again for the Whirlpool country, but found nothing. It must be small . . . It must be out of the way . . ._

_Minato __finally __found the Whirlpool Country and noticed that it would take him some time to get there, so the ANBU was right. The sooner he left the better._


	27. The red head

**Chapter Twenty Seven: The Red Head**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

'_Flashback story' is partly written by No More Masquerade_

_

* * *

_

_It took Minato barely two hours to get ready and then leave Konoha for this mission. His team consisted of a woman and three men__: Ami was the only woman, but she made up for more than enough women; she was such a sight for bleeding eyes to witness, they may as well heal with just one glance; Katsuo was one of the largest men Minato knew, standing at over two metres with shoulders and a chest as thick as the largest tree trunks Minato had yet seen; Haruki, who shone as bright as his name, was constantly smiling and always energetic; and Naoki, quiet enough to blend in with the dust that sparkles in sun rays, and as honest as the day is long. _

"_I didn't know that you were assigned on this mission Minato-san," Katsuo said as he looked back at Minato who was jumping in the trees behind them._

"_I'm surprised myself actually. But I'm only allowed to be there for three weeks after that I'll have to return to Konoha again to help them there," Minato answered as Katsuo nodded. "How much longer until we'll be there, Ami-san?" Minato asked Ami._

"_Two more days Minato-kun," she said with her soft voice as she looked back at Minato with a small smile._

"_Thank you Ami-san," Minato said as they continued to travel in silence._

_When those two days had passed__,__ they were finally in the Village Hidden in the Forest and Minato had to say that it was a beautiful village even though a lot of trees were lying on the ground and a few houses were nothing more than boards and splinters. __The branches of the many standing trees shuffled lightly in the breeze, sending leaves as get-well kisses to their fallen comrades. Even the fallen trees were beautiful: full of a passing life and a green that clung to them like infants to their mothers' breasts. _

_As he gave his fifth once-over, Minato could nearly hear the small cry as the life and spirit of the trees was ripped away. The sound echoed in his ears, and it seemed to come from everywhere, through all the trees and across the lake, and moving away and towards Minato like air. He watched the air stir with the sound and tap the lake on the shoulder, causing it to waver and shudder with the wind. It was a good-sized lake at that; not ridiculously large and undesirable, but not drying up and puddle-like. _

_Several wooden boards drifted in the water, dead and motionless; drowned and splintered to a useless death. Minato looked to their mourners, still standing strong, close together, holding each other in a wise sadness, huddled almost as if they were the occupants of the town that had survived._

_Unlike the tall, complicated multi-story buildings of Konoha, these houses were two-story at the most, and resembled antique dollhouses like those in books that Minato had read as a child. They were like dressed-up little girls with their porches like their frilly white skirts and their shutters like the near-translucent eye-lids with the careful make-up done by warm, practiced mothers. Their colours resembled a child's work as well; sky blues and bamboo greens; butter yellows and pomegranate reds. And, as if they'd been out in the mud after the rain, their skirts and coats were all muddied and discoloured._

"_Seems like there's a lot to do here," Naoki said __as he__ scratched the back of his head. "It'll take some time to rebuild the village to its original state."_

"_Yeah, but the faster we get to work the better, right?" Ami __stated__, and began walking towards one of the houses._

"_Wait a minute Ami-san," Minato said, grabb__ing__ her arm. Ami looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "We can't get to work at once. We need to eat and rest a bit first since we haven't eaten nor slept properly for the past few days," __he__ pointed out as Ami sighed._

"_Fine," Ami said as Minato let go of her arm. "I know that we really do have to rest and eat, but I want to help these people. Back at home a small earthquake hit, but not here. It seems like a tsunami made everything look like it does. I mean, the roads are very muddy and the houses are smashed! They didn't fall apart, they were really blasted," Ami went on __and__ Minato could see that she was very mad. She had always been someone to speak her mind and the word tactful didn't exactly exist in her dictionary, but she was a loyal shinobi and friend, and she always knew when to do the right thing.  
_

"_Okay, but where should we stay for the night__,__ then?" Naoki asked as he looked __to__Katsuo and then __to__Minato. "Is there a halting-place for us shinobi to sleep at when we don't work?"_

"_I think so," answered Haruki with a dark voice. "I guess we'll just have to ask where it is and after that get something to eat," he continued as Naoki and Katsuo nodded in agreement. _

"_Yeah, sounds good," Minato agreed. Then they set off to find this halting-place._

_Finally, they found the place they were looking for and everyone except for Minato and Katsuo went to get some food for them._

"_There is a lot of work ahead of us," Katsuo said as Minato sighed._

"_Yeah, you're right about that, but I'm glad that we can help these people," Minato answered and smiled a bit. He truly was glad that he could help out here, but he had a strange feeling in his stomach and he didn't quite know what it was. __Like a small animal, it scurried about and stood on edge, sniffing the air, for there was something coming and Minato knew it: However, what he didn't know was what it was that could possibly cause him such a disruption._

"_Oh my . . .look over there," Katsuo __suddenly __said and pointed at something behind Minato._

_Minato swallowed nervously, wondering what he would see as he turned around; that's when he saw her. __His heart sped to an unstoppable rate: not the most exotic of flowers had ever shown him such elegance. His eyes nearly began to tear: she couldn't be compared to anything. She was in her own league of astonishing, right above a sunrise and the first snow of winter. She was a white China teacup, she was the crispest paper: her skin was as white as winter itself. _

_Minato could hardly keep from blinking, she was so brilliant. Minato concluded at last that her skin could almost be compared to a daisy's petals, if it weren't so unbelievably perfect. With a faint glow, it shone like velvet in the sun, which nearly closed its eyes to the unbelievable splendor. It fell over her like piano strokes through a song, as bright as a star. Like emeralds set on silver, her eyes stood out on her perfect face._

_They sparkled as if she held a constant smile, and they reflected something magnificent from within her. They were green enough to bring spring with just one blink; so soft and young, like the colour of leaves sprouting anew from the earth for the first time. _

_She walked with a soft-tap step, like a cat, and she held in the crook of her arm a basket teeming with porcelain vases and China, and glasses and various other delicate breakables. So beautifully she held it, as if the ground was taunting her with its destruction, and she would not give such satisfaction. Lying upon her skin like early morning fog upon the ground was a loose, green cotton shirt that went down to her hips, and then only the middle portions of the front and back continued between her legs like an extra-long loin-cloth down to her knees. _

_Underneath it, she wore tight, grey peddle-pushers, ending just above her knees. Her boot-like sandals were splattered in mud, and her hitai-ate, tied loosely around her neck, was smudged and dirtied. Of course, the most astonishing thing about her as of yet had to be her hair. It was long and similar to a waterfall, but more amazing still was the colour. More brilliant than the base of a fire, redder than the glowing remains of embers, more astounding than a full, red rose, and more plentiful than a gaping wound spilling forth blood. Minato struggled even to come forth with the words "red" and "orange", but gaped and stuttered and slurred on words that made no sense but to him. _

_Minato couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was so beautiful. All that red hair; it caught his gaze at once. _

_Minato was __so__ caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Katsuo, who was waving his hands in front of him; nor did he notice that the others had returned._

"_What's wrong with him?" whispered Ami to Naoki. "He's totally spaced out."_

"_Oi! Minato?" Katsuo shouted as he tried to get Minato back to reality. _

"_Wake up, you jerk!" Ami finally shouted as she smacked Minato hard over the head._

_Minato was now lying on the ground, and it took him some time to understand what just happened._

"_Itai!" he screamed, __holding __his head with both hands. "That hurt! What did you do that for?"_

"_You were totally spaced out and Katsuo was trying to get your attention, but you just ignored him, looking at those shops," Ami told him as she put her hands on her hips; she was really pissed. "What were you looking at, anyway?" she asked him._

_Minato felt __a rush of heat spark at his neck and flood up into his face and to the very tips of his ears._

_Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by his comrades._

"_You're blushing!" Ami screamed and pointed at Minato with a huge grin on her face, making Minato blush harder. "Oh my God, this is unbelievable! You never blush! What did you see? What did you see?"_

"_Nothing . . ." Minato mumbled and turned his face away._

"_You saw something that sure held your attention, didn't you?" Haruki asked__,__ and actually smiled. "It's just like Ami said, you never blush. It was something that really caught your interest."_

"_I said it was nothing," Minato answered, more insistently this time._

"_I told you to look over there and when you turned around, bang, you were gone," Katsuo said. "I saw a red cat and I wanted Minato to see it too, but I think that he saw something else," he went on. Minato was the only one who knew that Katsuo was lying. _

"_Idiots . . ." Naoki muttered under his breath and began walking towards a spot where there was only grass. "I'm hungry and I want my food. Can't we eat and then find out what Minato-san saw?" he __whined as he__sat down._

_Haruki shrugged and followed Naoki. Ami, Minato and Katsuo soon followed as well and, since Haruki was the one with food, he made sure that everyone got their meal._

"_But seriously Minato-kun, what did you see?" Ami asked with her mouth full of rice. "I wanna know! Pwetty pwease! Tell me!"_

"_No," Minato answered flatly, still feeling that he was blushing._

"_Tell us!" Ami continued pleading and looked at Minato with a pissed but curious face._

"_No," Minato repeated firmly as Ami sighed._

"_I'll do anything, just tell me what you saw, please!" she continued. It was Minato's turn to sigh this time._

"_Why do you want know? It's my business," he answered as Ami crossed her arms._

"_Well . . . I thought that if you were looking at that red haired woman I could help you to get together," Ami said matter-of-factly, as Minato's eyes widened before he began to choke on his rice ball._

"_The bloody hell!" he shouted between coughs while the rest of the group smirked at him._

"_So you _were_ looking at the red head?" Haruki asked, his smirk widening. "That explains a lot, but . . . why her? I didn't see anything special about her," Haruki continued, as Minato was too embarrassed to understand that Haruki was baiting him on purpose._

"_What? She was beautiful," Minato answered indignantly with a frown. It was too late when he understood what just had happened. "Oh, great . . ." he muttered under his breath._

"_HA! You just confessed that you like her!" Ami shouted and grinned at Minato, who had buried his face in his hands. "We gotta get you together," she continued._

"_We don't have time for that. We're here to help rebuild the village, not to get me a girlfriend," Minato said plainly, but he couldn't keep the disappointment from his voice._

"_Come on! We four can do enough work to cover your part of work too! Just, please, I've never seen you like this Minato! So . . . give it a try. I've been your teammate since our academy days, so don't fool me nor ignore my advice, okay? I want you to be happy, can't you understand that?" Ami coaxed, making Minato __feel__ a bit guilty. _

"_That's really nice of you and all, but I don't think that you can cover my work," Minato answered and winced a little when he saw Ami's facial expression._

"_You jerk! You like her! So you damn well better do something about this!" she shouted as Minato gulped._

"_She's right, you know," said Katsuo and smirked. "Come on, you like her, so you should talk to her and give it a try."_

"_Yep! The worst that can happen would probably be rejection, wouldn't it?" Naoki put in as Minato sighed, muttering under his breath._

"_Exactly, I don't want to be rejected . . ." he said firmly as Haruki and Ami rolled their eyes._

"_Minato . . . the best way to enhance any relationship is through communication," Haruki said with a sigh. "If there is open communication there is hardly any room for misunderstandings, nor secrets. You will feel free and your love life will only be enhanced," he explained as Minato just stared at him with slight surprise written on his face. _

"_Well . . .as little as I want to be rejected, I guess you're right . . . I'll never know until I try . . . but I really don't think I should be messing around; we are on a mission," Minato said, scratching the back of his head and staring down at his onigiri._

"_Minato, judging by your reaction to that girl, I'd have to say that a love like this won't likely come along so easily for a long time, and you're getting to the age where you might consider settling down: As a ninja, you never know how much time you have left. You know, if you get rejected, then you obviously aren't meant to be, but if it's love, then I'm sure that proper communication will lead things to their destined positions," Haruki said and had a soft look on his face._

"_I never knew that you could say something like that," said Ami and cocked an eyebrow._

"_Hey! Don't judge me by looks, okay," Haruki said and glared at Minato, but Minato seemed to be unaffected by it._

"_Well, since Haruki brought this up . . . I should get a say in this as well," said Naoki. "__Rashly using words to hurt others is one of the lowest of lows__. Words leave a lasting impression, whether positive or negative. So, speak only good things, __even if your intentions seem that they would normally be bad__. And even if you are angry, take control and speak after your anger has subsided. Let your heart do the talking__,__ not __your__ ego or __anger, so you will end up speaking the truth, but not harshly, as not to lower those around you as if you were better than they are__," he finished as all of his comrades__, including Minato, gaped at him like fish._

"_You're all crazy, you know that?" Minato said and closed his mouth when Ami smacked his head. "Itai! I'm not a punching bag!"_

"_Well, is it my fault that you give the impression o__f b__eing one?" Ami shouted as she clenched and unclenched her fists several times._

_Minato muttered under his breath as he looked at Ami from the corner of his eyes._

"_Well, well__ . . .__should we come up with a plan during this meal or what?" asked Naoki as he looked at Ami who obviously would be the leader of this plot. _

"_Ne, Minato?" Ami asked as she turned her head back towards Minato only to find him gone. "What? Where is he?"_

"_Calm down Ami," warned Katsuo and frowned. "He just went over there to the grocery store. I think it was there he saw that girl the first time, so it wouldn't surprise me if he went there to look for her."_

"_That idiot!" exclaimed Ami and held her head between her hands. "He can't just approach her like that, he has to have a plan or something!"_

"_AMI!" shouted Haruki so loud that a few people actually turned their heads and looked at the young shinobis who were having a very loud conversation. "He's a big boy and he has dated before, so he isn't inexperienced."_

"_I know but . . . those girls were different! He never blushed around them!" Ami said, pointing an accusing finger towards Haruki, who just sighed as he rolled his eyes._

"_Ami," warned Naoki with a dangerously low voice and Ami __was wise enough__ to shut her mouth __at last__. "Let him do this and if he screws up, he'll come to us and then ask for advice, okay?" he said firmly as Ami sighed, defeated._

"_Fine, but when he finally comes back, I'll make sure that he won't have any kids__ . . .__" Ami muttered under her breath, and the men around her paled, unconsciously covering their 'little friends.' _

_Minato was walking down the streets that hadn't been destroyed by the tsunami, __and, in actuality, he was__not even affected by it. The only thing he had in mind was the read head he had seen. __The street was steaming with people rushing about to bring the life back to their run-down village, therefore, Minato was constantly ducking out of the way to let people with heavy loads and tight-knit crowds pass. _

_They were slipping in and out of the many shops like ants through cracks in a wall. The shops were small, but, as everyone was out of their houses and trying to help out, each one was packed to a brimming point with people. If he closed his eyes, however, Minato could see the small avenue, as it was everyday before the disaster. _

_The wind would play with the shop banners and several people would step in and out of shops every so often, but otherwise, it would be as peaceful as the trees that were already standing proud and tall around the shops and down the street, similar to the electric poles and street lamps in his own village. He smiled at the thought of having trees lining his own streets._

_Minato really loved this village. It was so beautiful, and even though it was pretty different from Konoha, it kind of felt like home._

_He was so lost in his thoughts that__Minato didn't notice when he accidentally bumped into someone, and __he__ smacked himself mentally for spacing out twice in the same day. He wasn't usually like that, but ever since he saw that woman, well . . . things had changed. _

_Both Minato and the person he had bumped into fell to the ground, so while Minato was rubbing his back because of the pain, the other person was trying to get all her stuff up from the ground. Yes, it was her. She had red hair. _

"_Sumimasen; I didn't see you," Minato said when he noticed all the things on the ground in front of him. "I hope that nothing's shattered," he continued when he saw that everything was made of either glass or porcelain._

_He took a glass and as he handed it back to the woman, he caught a glimpse of her face. His eyes widened and he could feel his heartbeat quicken.__Something that had long been dormant within him jumped from a nap and Minato felt a heat tingle in his face, like hot water under the surface of his skin. She was too beautiful to stand . . ._

"_Oh, thank you . . . um . . ." the woman began, as Minato shook his head to clear his thoughts, again._

"_I'm sorry, Minato is __my__ name. Namikaze Minato," he said and bowed slightly with his head even though they were sitting on the ground in the middle of a busy street._

"_Alright__, thank you Minato, and I'm sorry for bumping into you, it wasn't my intention," the woman continued and picked up the last porcelain figure. "I'm in a hurry you see."_

_The woman studied the man in front of her and came to the conclusion that he was a handsome young man in his early twenties__. His hair was a spiky mess of bright yellow, like that of a sunflower. As a matter of fact, he reminded her of a sunflower in general: Just like a flower, he was like a reflection of the sun; bright and, despite his dark blush and jumpy aura, she guessed he was usually pleasant and happy. _

_She smiled at the thought of how nice he must be. Carefully, she looked him over once more and was struck by the blue of his eyes. If he reflected the sun, then that must be where he kept his sliver of sky. Even his tanned skin hinted that he was out in the sun often. _

What a jewel . . ._ the woman thought, smiling to herself._ He's like some sort of secret, missing piece of sky . . . No wonder the world isn't as bright as it could be . . . It looks like the most beautiful slice has fallen to Earth.

_The woman took a wild guess and imagined that he must have been a second sun to his friends. He was already brightening her world, and she had hardly learnt his name._

"_No, it's okay, I should have seen you. I just fell head first for this beautiful village," Minato explained as the woman smiled and Minato grinned. "I really like all the trees around here and it kind of reminds me of home," he continued as the woman nodded._

"_Well, it isn't called the Village Hidden in the Forest for nothing, is it?" the woman said again and shrugged._

_Suddenly her expression changed from happy to shocked. "Oh, I forgot! My name's Kushina! Uzumaki Kushina!" she said and bowed herself._

"_Well, since we got off to a bit of a bad start, I would like to introduce myself properly. Namikaze Minato, shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Leaf, here to help rebuilding the village," he said proudly as he grinned again and bowed once more._

"_You're a Leaf shinobi?" Kushina asked with wide eyes as Minato nodded. "That explains why you think this village reminds you of your home."_

"_Hai, but I'll only be here for three weeks__,__ I'm afraid__;__ we __have__ some work to do in the Leaf as well. Many villages have recently been hit by some kind of natural catastrophe. It's pretty strange, but sometimes strange things happen," Minato explained and smiled again. His cheeks hurt. _

"_Oh, I hope that everything is okay in __the __Leaf," she said and frowned a bit with a sad smile. "Oh my God!" she suddenly exclaimed and it was Minato's turn to frown. "You just introduced yourself twice without me saying anything about myself and here I am just standing and listening. Well, I'm Uzumaki Kushina, __kunoichi__ from the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools, I'm here to buy some thing for my fiancée," she explained and didn't notice when Minato stiffened, nor did she notice the sadness flash in his eyes. _

"_You have a fiancée?" Minato asked as he felt his heart shatter into million pieces that not even Kami would be able to put back together. _

"_Yes, I do," Kushina answered a bit awkwardly when she noticed the sadness in Minato's eyes. Not another lovesick idiot, she thought and her smile faltered. "We're going to get married soon, in three months from now, actually," she continued and neither of the two wore smiles anymore. _

"_Well, I believe congratulations are in order then," Minato answered, putting on a fake smile, hoping it wouldn't look too fake._

"_Thank you, Minato-kun," Kushina said and smiled as well, but it was forced. "It was nice to meet you," she said, and then left quickly. _

_Minato was left there, heartbroken. It felt like nothing mattered anymore.__ As Kushina disappeared into the mob of people, Minato found himself sinking into something so deep and black that he was feeling lost and confused before he was down into the pit to his waist. _

_Not a boyfriend, to leave him with hopes, and not a husband, to leave him with a sense of finalization, but a fiancée. So in love he was that he felt he was the only possible person for Kushina to ever be with, and he'd barely met her. The life he was meant to live out seemed lost to him: What life was there when his true love was not to be with him? _

_Even worse was imagining that Kushina would be happy elsewhere; happy without him. It was the reality that he did not know her and never would that stung the worst. Even if she would never love him, it would have been so much easier if he hadn't fallen so quickly; if he knew that she would be happier without him; if he had known her. Now sinking into his loneliness faster than ever with meter after meter of darkness above his head, Minato clutched his heart where he stored what had never shown its face before. _

So, _Minato thought, smiling through his pain, which spread like poison throughout him,_ this is what it means to have your heart broken. No wonder Jiraiya-sensei never decided to settle on one girl.

_When he finally accepted that Kushina had a future husband waiting for her in this village, and that she had actually looked at him with what looked like annoyance, he went back to his companions. He hoped that he would just forget everything about this woman named Uzumaki Kushina, __kunoichi__ of the Whirlpools Village._

_Minato didn't forget about her. Her beautiful face would always, always, show itself in his mind when he was concentrating on his work, talking with people, __sleeping, eating,__ or when he was doing nothing at all. He knew he was in love, but it was an unhappy and one-sided love._

_It had already been one week since he saw her for the first time, one week since __his heart had broken__ and one week since his comrade's __began to pity__ him because of this incident. It was driving him mad! But just because he knew that Kushina had a __fiancée__ didn't mean that his chances to befriend her vanished as well. It's never over until it's over. So, ever since that day, he kept trying to get closer to her by simply talking or helping her with her errands. He had found out some things about her, like she would be here for four weeks and after that she would return to her 'future husband' as Minato always said with dripping venom._

_On the outside, Minato was always kind, helpful and full of energy, but on the inside, well . . . that's something else__. When he looked at his situation from the outside, he felt lost; his love had been stolen before he had had the chance to make his own move: They'd started the game before he had had time to get there. However, he truly did love Kushina, and he loved helping her and being around her, so he didn't even have to fake his bountiful amount of energy or happiness. _

_Despite this, however, when he was alone, the bomb would drop and he would remember that Kushina was already in love elsewhere. But a fire had ignited within him, and, despite a pain that was nearly unbearable, Minato found the faith and strength to make himself believe that he still had a chance: if he could find a love so strong within himself, then he knew he had a chance to win over the heart that had stolen his. _

_In other words, he was a stubborn one that wouldn't give up even if the odds were against him. He had also found out some of Kushina's likes and dislikes and a little bit about her childhood. Sometimes she seemed to be awkward around him, but other times it was like nothing else mattered, and she was really happy to be with him._

_Minato had a 'notebook' in his head where he 'gathered information' so that everything he found out about Kushina was documented there. She was a total ramen freak and Minato laughed the first time he heard that. He'd met her for some lunch together and when they passed by a ramen shop, Kushina shouted in joy, dragging Minato along with her. While they had been eating, Minato thought how Kushina would be thrilled to learn about Ichiraku's existence back home. Minato also learnt that Kushina loved children. Once she saw a kid she had to go over to him or her and talk with them. It was a lovely site and Kushina would probably be an excellent mother one day. Oh, and about ramen, well, that's not the only food she liked, she loved all kinds of food. As long as __she__ can put it in __her__ mouth, chew, swallow and smile afterwards, she'd eat it._

_About her dislikes__:__ Minato hadn't learnt too much about them__,__ yet. But__,__ there was one thing he did know, and that was that she __didn't__ like guys that __went__ all lovey-dovey __over__ her. Even though guys __didn't__ chase her like crazy, she viewed most of them as complete idiots. Minato __still didn't__ know why__,__ and Kushina probably __wouldn't__ tell either__,__ since she __thought__ that Minato __was like__ them, but . . . __she __had__ given him a chance__, hadn't__ she? _

_While Minato was reading his mental notebook about Kushina, he was working on rebuilding a house with an earth jutsu that didn't go well._

"_Run!" Ami shouted when Minato had used said jutsu to fix __a__ garden __out front of__ a house. The only problem was that he was supposed to make the ground flat__,__ but instead__,__ he made the ground higher and higher until it was a small hill so . . . the house fell down to the ground with a loud crash. _

"_Baka yarou!" Ami shouted again to Minato who lay flat on his back and was staring up at the hill he had just created. "What is wrong with you? Are you trying to destroy this village even more than it already is?"_

"_No," Minato answered matter-of-factly as he stared up at the furious, __black-haired, snarling beast before him, __who looked like she could kill __at any moment._

"_You ignorant bastard!" she shouted and lifted him up by the collar. Minato gulped and__,__ up until this point, had not realised that Ami was serious. "You really have a death wish, huh?"_

"_I-I'm sorry A-Ami-san," Minato said and grinned nervously._

"_You better be," Ami said, still angry with him, but put him down on the ground again. Minato was happy to have both feet on planet __Ea__rth again__,__ so he sighed in relief. "But hey! Isn't that Kushina over there?" she suddenly shouted and smiled as if the previous incident hadn't occurred._

_Of course, Minato turned around with a bright blush, which he unsuccessfully tried to hide. He looked around franticly before he realised that Kushina wasn't there. When he turned back around to face Ami again, he expected to see her laughing. But she wasn't._

"_You tricked me, didn't you? So why aren't you laughing?" Minato asked, confused. When she didn't answer he said, "Why are you looking at me like that? It's like there's someone behind me . . ." he trailed off and finally stopped. Someone was behind him._


	28. I love you!

**Chapter Twenty Eight: I Love You!**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_'Flashback story' is partly written by No More Masquerade and the poem is written by the lovely landiddy__**  
**_

* * *

_Minato slowly turned around and looked at the ground to prevent himself from looking the person directly in the eyes, since one never looks directly in the eyes of an unknown person__:__ it __isn't__ polite. Anyway, he was now facing this person and he could only see a pair of black shoes that he remembered from __somewhere else._

_Minato laughed a bit and pointed at the shoes. "That's funny, my friend has exactly the same pair of shoes as you do," he said and finally looked up at the person in front of him, grinning, but the grin was replaced by a red face when he recognized this person. _

"_K-Kushina-chan!" he stuttered as he blushed even more. Kushina couldn't help but smile at his childish manner. _

"_Hello Minato-san. What's with the 'chan'__? Y__ou've never __used honourifics__ before," Kushina answered with a frown. She really liked Minato as a friend and hoped that his obvious love for her wouldn't ruin it. _

"_Um . . .sorry . . .it just slipped," Minato said as he rubbed the back of his head with a grin plastered on his tan face. _

"_I see. Well, I'm going to go for a walk, do you want to join me? I've got something to tell you," Kushina said. _

_Minato looked shocked at first but recovered quickly. "I'd love to," he answered quickly. He then walked away with Kushina by his left side, leaving a smiling Ami behind. _

_They were walking along the bay, and Minato felt pretty happy for the moment. He was walking with Kushina, the view was beautiful and the water reflected the sun above them. Everything felt so right, but at the same time it felt so terribly wrong. From moment to moment it felt like his heart screamed in protest. It was raining; the sun being blocked by clouds and the lake was __as__ black as the darkest hole in a dungeon. _

_This wasn't right and yet it still felt so right. Minato sighed and stopped for a moment. He was so confused and everything he wanted seemed to disappear beyond his reach and that __'__everything' was Kushina. She was engaged, damn it! _

"_Everything is going downhill . . ." he sighed as he scratched his chin. He didn't even notice that Kushina looked back at him from her spot a few steps ahead. _

"_Minato-san? What's bothering you?" Kushina asked, a bit uncertainly. _

"_Ah, it's nothing . . .really, Kushina-san," Minato answered, laughing nervously. "I'm just spacing out like always," he assured her with a big grin as he walked up to her side again, still wearing his grin. _

"_Are you sure? You look a bit pale, you know," Kushina __observed__, as Minato's smile actually faltered. Maybe he really should tell her? _

_Minato shook his head. "I can't lie to you, Kushina," he __began__, as Kushina gulped. _

_He was going to say it. He was going to confess to her. Did she really want to hear this? She love__d__ Renton, her boyfriend and future husband! She __didn't__ love this man from the Village Hidden in the Leaf, or . . . __maybe__ . . . love __was__ one of the most confusing things in life. Ever since that day when Minato locked eyes with hers, she had felt this strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, it was like__ something within her had made up its mind; she was learning, slowly, how difficult it was to love two at once. So different were these two men, and yet . . . her heart yearned deeply for them both. Despite__ the fact that__ she knew she was engaged, and she knew she couldn't love another if she was to be married, a battle was striking forth within her._

_She sighed. She was uncertain of whom she really loved. _

"_There i-is something I want t-to tell you Kushina-san," Minato stuttered as Kushina closed her eyes. _

Here it goes_, Kushina thought as she opened her eyes again and noticed the blush on Minato's cheeks._

"_I know that you have a boyfriend, and that you don't love me. I'm just a lovesick idiot in your eyes," Minato __continued__. Kushina felt strange again when he said that last sentence. _

Lovesick idiot? _She thought and exhaled__;__ without realising it, she had been holding her breath. _

"_I'm very sorry to say this . . . actually . . . I'm glad that I'm saying this__,__ because then I'll hear the answer directly from you and not by reading your movements, glances or expressions," Minato __went on__, as he smiled a sad smile. "I don't know how to express myself, but . . . when I found out that you had a fiancée I went into a really dark place in my life. I continued to act like normal; no one around me would have been able to guess that something was off." _

_Kushina swallowed nervously again, but she listened to what he had to say. _

_Minato bit his lip nervously. "You can say that I was languishing, pretty badly too . . ." Minato __said__ with a forced smile. "Anyway, I can come up with the strangest things, but it also depends on my mood. When I was in this dark place, I decided to ease the pain I felt by doing something," he continued as Kushina's eyes widened in shock. Minato heard her gasp. _

"_You don't cut yourself do you?" Kushina asked out of so much worry that Minato felt a bit surprised by her concern. _

"_Of course not! What I am talking about is this," Minato answered as he took out a piece of paper from his Flak jacket. "I want you to read this. I didn't write it so that you could read it, I wrote it the way I-" _

"_Stop Minato . . . " Kushina interrupted, as she let her hair cover her face so Minato couldn't see her expression and thereby not know if Kushina was mad, sad, happy or amused. _

_Kushina looked down at the piece of paper in front of her and began reading. _

_I sit here, alone_  
_More often than not,_  
_Just thinking of her_  
_And how she so easily_  
_Surpasses perfection._

_Goodhearted._  
_Benign._  
_Always giving._  
_Sweet yet spicy._

_She always treats someone fairly._  
_Until double crossed,_  
_She will be someone's_  
_Very best friend._

_She is simply . . ._  
_**Kind**__._

_The way she glides . . ._  
_Each movement_  
_A single drift_  
_In an endless_  
_Giggling breeze._

_Perfect._  
_Impeccable._  
_Absolute ultimate._  
_So natural yet consummate._

_She is always_  
_Without a fault._  
_Appearance_  
_or otherwise._

_She is simpl . . .  
__**Unflawed**__._

_Just breathtaking_  
_When she walks_  
_Into the room._  
_Each step ever_  
_Entrancing . . ._

_Gorgeous._  
_Beautiful._  
_Neatly polished._  
_Just plain yet refined._

_I look at her_  
_And am left_  
_Breathless_  
_Each time._

_She is simply . . ._  
_**Stunning**__._

_Always rushing_  
_Out to aid_  
_Others in need._  
_Forever thinking_  
_Of what's best._

_Bold._  
_Dauntless._  
_All around fearless._  
_Calm yet gallant._

_Rushing out_  
_With a level head_  
_To save the day_  
_Every time._

_She is simply . . ._  
_**Heroic.**_

_I watch as she_  
_Works for her worth._  
_Always making sure_  
_That her place_  
_Is earned._

_Hardworking._  
_Relentless._  
_Always on point._  
_Detached yet caring._

_She's sure to_  
_Get what she wants_  
_In her own way_  
_Without help._

_She is simply . . ._  
_**Independent.**_

_Everything she does_  
_Is mind-blowing_  
_To the very_  
_Parametres of_  
_Our world._

_Strong._  
_Tactful._  
_Never oblivious._  
_Gentle yet fierce._

_Her entire_  
_Personality is_  
_Enough to render_  
_A man helpless._

_She is simply . . ._  
_**Nonparallel.**_

_So here I sit._  
_Unable to directly_  
_Tell her of these_  
_Feelings I feel_  
_Oh so deeply._

_Marvelous._  
_Fantastic._  
_Keeping me wondering._  
_So simple yet complex._

_I still sit here_  
_And only write_  
_Of what I think_  
_Of this glorious woman._

_She is Simply . . ._  
_**Amazing.**_

_Unflawed_  
_Stunning_  
_Heroic_  
_Independent_  
_Nonparallel_  
_Amazing . . ._

_She is simply . . .  
__**KUSHINA**__._

_Kushina held the paper in her hands, her hair still covering her face so Minato still couldn't see it. After what felt like an eternity, Kushina finally raised her head. Minato's eyes widened when he saw her tears. _

"_Baka . . ." she __said simply__ as Minato felt a sharp pain on his left cheek and realised what had happened when his face was now turned to the right instead of looking at the crying woman in front of him. _

_Minato just stood there__,__ seemingly frozen. When he finally turned his head back to Kushina, he saw that her hand was still raised. She was still crying and the paper in her hand was getting wet from a few tears that had landed on its surface. _

"_BAKA YAROU!" she suddenly screamed and once again Minato felt a sharp pain on his left cheek, but it didn't hurt as much as his right side. _

_The only thing he could see through his tears was Kushina running away, with the poem clutched tightly in her hand. The pain on his cheeks weren't nearly as bad as the pain in his heart. Yes, Kushina had just punched him__ - __her clenched fist__ -__ and he was now lying on his side on the beach. _

"_I'm sorry . . ." he whispered before he let the tears fall freely down his cheeks and onto the sand. _

_Minato had returned home after the rejection. His job in the Village Hidden in the Forest was __complete,__ so there was nothing left for him to do there. He had a broken heart and mind and everything felt like if would shatter. No matter what__,__ it would always shatter. A dream or the reality__;__ it didn't matter. _

"_Minato, you seem to be bothered by something, do you want to __talk about it?__" Tsunade asked a__s she__ looked at Minato with a sad and worried expression on her face. _

_Minato looked up at her from his position on a hospital bed. Since he was so depressed__,__ he had to visit Tsunade from time to time__,__ and currently__,__ he was at the hospital for __a__ check-up. His companions on __his__ mission__ - __Ami, Katsuo, Haruki and Naoki__ -__were__ very worried__,__ and it was __they__ who made sure that Minato went to Tsunade. They knew that if Kushina push__ed__ him away__,__ he would be__come__ depressed, but this was getting ridiculous. _

"_You know why I'm depressed. It's the same reason as always," Minato answered __flatly, __look__ing__ at nothing in particular. _

"_Minato . . ." Tsunade sighed __as she__ looked at the broken young man in front of __her.__ "You're still in your early twenties, so you __have__ a lot of time __to __find someone to share your life with." _

"_Maybe . . .but I __was in love with Kushina . . .there's no one else I can picture __spending __my life with . . ." Minato trailed off and sighed. _

_Tsunade frowned. "You have to try to get over her. Date someone else in the meantime and soon you'll realise that there are other women here in Konoha that want to find love as much as you," Tsunade said again __as__ Minato jumped down from the bed he was sitting on. _

"_I'll try," Minato __answered,__ but his __usual__ grin __was__ nowhere __to be seen__. He left the room and the door shut with a small click. _

_Tsunade buried her face in her hands. _

Dan . . . _she though and began reminiscing nostalgically._

_It__ had__ been three months since Minato __last __saw Kushina__ in__ the Village Hidden in the Forest, and one day since he broke up with a woman named Kimiko who __was__ a really nice girl that liked Minato very much, but . . . she had red hair just like Kushina__,__ and that bothered Minato so much __that it had begun to__ hurt. His longing __for__ Kushina was __tearing up his insides and lingering about him like a ghost__. _

_It felt as if a piece of Kushina had latched onto him - the only piece he was allowed to hold to his heart - and it constantly spoke to him in soft whispers: How you love me, how close you came, and yet I am not here and I am not yours, and despite our seperation, I am completely happy, even without you. It was as if this piece of Kushina was all that was left of his heart, he had nothing to give but his love for Kushina, and there was no one who would ever want it but Kushina herself, and not even she would take it. _

_There was no one who wanted the love he could give, and the day he realised this was the day the remainder of his heart fell to a small pile of dust and blew away with the lingering whispers of Kushina's voice . . . baka yarou . . . baka . . . baka . . . Knowing that not a soul in the world could possibly accept his love broke Minato into shards, and not even the memories of Kushina's smiling face and chiming laugh could bring him to his feet in order to sweep up his heart and soul to get them off the ground. _

_Instead, he was trampled on, numb and without eyes to cry from._

_He sighed for what felt like the thousand__th__ time that day. He was currently walking through Konoha on one of the main roads where most of the shops were located. One of the shops being Ichiraku's, __which was the one that __Minato was heading for. _

_He sat down on one of the chairs and Teuchi came up to him with a smile plastered on his face. _

"_Minato! Long time no see, but where is Kimiko?" he asked a__s__ Minato made a face. _

"_I broke up with her yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore," Minato __answered as he __dropped his head on the table with a loud thud. Teuchi winced at the sound. _

That's gotta hurt,_ he thought and walked over to Minato and laid his elbows close to where Minato' head was located._

"_Wanna tell me about it?" Teuchi asked a__s__ Minato tilted his head to the side so that __he__ could see a bit of Teachi's face from the corner of his eyes. _

"_I'm always thinking about Kushina, even though it was three months ago since I saw her __last__," Minato explain__ed.__ Teuchi already knew about Kushina and the rejection, thanks to a certain Ami__,__whom__ Minato had a very serious and loud conversation__ with, regarding her__ spreading __of a__ rumor. _

"_Kamiko reminded me so much of Kushina__,__ and of course__,__ when . . .you know . . .when we did 'it' . . ." Minato was blushing and Teuchi couldn't help but smile, "I accidentally said Kushina's name instead of hers," he finished__, as __Teuchi could only imagine how pissed Kamiko must have been._

"_I told her that it was an accident and she actually forgave me, but it was three days __later __and . . .of course . . . I had to screw up again! It was so bad that you don't even wanna know about it . . ." Minato continued to explain__,__and__ Teuchi could really feel Minato's sorrow. "Anyhow, I couldn't stand it anymore so I broke up with her and I'm actually pretty glad that she understood my reason__, s__ince everybody in this entire-" _

_Minato cursed and Teuchi pretended that he didn't hear it. Who knew the kid could use such a word__? _

"_-village__knows about me and my love for Kushina. Everybody knows that I had been rejected __by__ Kushina from the Whirlpool Country!" _

"_You have to calm down Minato," Teuchi said a__s he__ walked over to the stove to make Minato some ramen on the house. "I have never seen you so broken and all because of a woman you barely know." _

"_I know . . .__T__here has to be something seriously wrong with me. Maybe that's why she rejected me? Maybe she doesn't have a fiancée? What if she just said that so she could avoid me . . .?" Minato __asked as __Teuchi frowned._

"_Minato—" he __began__ with a stern voice, but __was immediately__ interrupted by Minato's babbling. _

"_Maybe she __doesn't__ like my personality . . . maybe I have to . . . be better . . . nicer, happier, calmer, friendlier, funnier__,__ and richer? Damn . . . how could I get richer?" Minato __asked__ and by now he was thinking __out__ loud and Teuchi didn't __understand __what he was hearing __from the blonde. "Maybe she thinks that I'm bad, miserable, stressed out, morose, unpopular and un-creditworthy . . . help me Teuchi!" _

"_That's enough Minato!" Teuchi __yelled as __several men and women looked at the two arguing men at Ichiraku's, wondering what could get Teuchi, the nice and smiling cook of __the__quite renowned__ ramen restaurant in Konoha, so mad. _

"_There's is nothing wrong with you__,__ Minato! You're one of the kindest __people__ I've met and I'd never, ever think of you as a bad person! Your self-confidence is sinking right now and your self-esteem is gone as well __. . .__ what's wrong Minato? I know that you feel down about Kushina, but this is ridiculous. Get a __hold__ of yourself," Teuchi said, __serving__ Minato a Miso ramen. "It's on the house," he said with a smile, as if the fight had never occurred. _

_Minato looked at the ramen cup in front of him and sigh__ed__. He took a pair of chopsticks and began eating. Teuchi had actually helped a bit by simply being there,__ listening to him, and talking some sense into him! He __was __starting __to__ feeling a bit better too, he could tell.__ Teuchi hadn't done much actually . . .__but still, this feeling __trickled through his veins likes some sort of calming drug, placing warm hands on his shoulders and soft kisses of his forehead. Things would turn out as they should, even if Minato did not end up with Kushina._

_Sarutobi, the third Hokage of Konoha, was currently sitting in his chair in the Hokage tower, looking at the woman in front of him. _

That's an unusual hair colour,_ he thought a__s he__ smiled a bit and thought about a certain man that was __off sulking somewhere in Konoha__._

_Even though Sarutobi was an old man close to his sixties, he was clever.__He'd quite figured out by now that the young woman who'd come to him was none other than the praised and adored Kushina who Minato had been raving about. His old mind still sped like a bullet and cut like a knife, and he was quite ready to add his help into Minato's situation. With his eyes, full or wisdom and contentness, like that of the sun, Sarutobi smiled upon the girl, folding his hands on the desk in front of him._

"_I'm very sorry to bother you Hokage-sama, but it wasn't my intentions to come all the way to your office. You see, I'm looking for someone and when I mentioned his name, the guard at your port said that I should go speak with the Hokage about the matter," the woman __explained. E__ven though Sarutobi had never heard her voice before, __al__l the descriptions he had heard __were__ enough for him to understand. _

_Her voice was __a soft but firm ripple of sound through the air, like the gentle tearing of the leaves of a lamb's ear plant, __and it __would catch__ anyone's attention. _

No wonder Minato fell for her, she certainly is a stunning young woman,_ Sarutobi thought and smiled a__s__ Uzumaki Kushina stood in front of him. _

"_Go to this address and you'll find what you're looking for," Sarutobi __said__ a__s he__ wrote something on a little note and gave __it__ to Kushina__,__ who frowned, but stepped forward and took the little piece of paper from his wrinkled hand. _

"_But I haven't mentioned his name yet, so how __do __you know who I'm talking about, Hokage-sama?" Kushina asked, still frowning. _

"_There isn't a single person here in Konoha who __doesn't __know about __t__his__ . . . __secret love," Sarutobi said with a __knowing __smile a__s__ Kushina blushed, both out of shame because she had rejected him and because his whole home village knew about her. _

"_He he . . .__thank you Hokage-sama, I'll be going then," Kushina said and bowed before she turned around and went out from the room and closed the door with a click. _

"_Young love is something special," Sarutobi said to himself and began reminiscing nostalgically. _

_Minato was currently sitting on a chair in his apartment, looking at the opposite wall where __many__ pictures __hung__. Two days ago, Sarutobi had asked if he wanted to take on a Genin team, but he wasn't sure if Minato was mentally capable of it__ at this point__,__ since __thinking about Kushina was keeping him from living a normal Jounin's life. _

_He had three documents in his hands, which__ contained __information about his new students__; if__ they were going to be his new student__s,__ that is. Their names were Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito and Rin. This Rin girl had such a strange last name__,__ Minato didn't even dare to pronounce it._

_He was currently looking at the girl Rin's file,__ noting what an interesting girl she was. At only age nine, she was already a very skilled __medical-nin. _

_Next, h__e looked at Hatake Kakashi__'s__ and noticed that he graduated from the Academy at a very young age, most likely a gen__i__us, which really impressed him. Then there was Uchiha Obito. To have an Uchiha and a Sharingan on your team __was really__ something special. A medical-nin, a genius and the Sharingan; a very interesting choice of Sarutobi__'s__. _

_Minato smiled and laid his head back on the chair so that he was looking at the ceiling. Suddenly, he heard a light knock on his front door and cursed under his breath. He stood up lazily and walked over the door, ready shout at the person if needed. _

_He opened the door and __his jaw dropped in total surprise. "What are you . . ."__ but __he didn't finish because a __pair of soft lips connected with his own. It was Kushina. _

_She was so quick and so desperate that her hands slapped his cheeks as she pulled his face to hers. She reached even her fingernails to anything near-by; his hair and his neck, his shirt and his shoulders. She grasped and clawed, as if there would never be any one place to settle on._

_Minato's eyes widened, and he tried desperately to close them, but even as he wrapped his arms around Kushina and pulled her in closer, he stared at her, feasting on the sight of her. All the things that had glowed vividly in his mind once Kushina had left him were now on fire right before him and in his arms. He touched her so carefully, trying not to let her disappear and blow away with the wind._

_Then she was solid, and Minato fell head first into their kiss, realising the call of need that spoke from Kushina's kiss. He gripped her shirt, and his teeth ran into hers, and the world fell to ashes around them and that was just okay._

_She pushed her tongue past his lips, squirming and slipping about his mouth; so quick and hasty that she hardly noticed that she was making a mockery of her own skills. But that mattered not, because Minato was impressed just by the fact that she had come to him, and he pushed back, sliding his tongue against hers, fast and gentle like the flapping of a butterfliy's wings, but a butterfly in destress, for he felt this was the last kiss the world would ever see._

_Then the air was gone and the dancing behind their lips ceased and the kiss ended like the dramatic closing of an orchestra's finale._

_They parted a__s__ Kushina looked at Minato with half lidded eyes and a small smile on her lips. Her face was flushed and the only word going through Minato's head was 'beautiful.' He guessed that he looked pretty much the same as Kushina right now. Flushed face, lustrous eyes, swollen lips and a small __smile__ gracing his lips. _

"_I'm sorry for what I said before . . ." Kushina said after regaining her breath. "I'm sorry for rejecting you and you're . . .you're not a baka . . ." she blushe__d__ at the end of that sentence a__s__ Minato's smile widened to a full-fledged grin. _

"_Thank you," he said quietly, the grin never leaving his face, as he h__eld__ her close and Kushina hugged him back. "You have no idea how happy I am right now." _

"_I have my guesses," Kushina said with a smirk and kissed Minato again, not as passionately as the first; this was a gentle and caring one. _

_Kushina and Minato __were__ really happy together and Minato's friend__s__ had never seen Minato as happy as he was now. __His sulking had fled from him like a scared animal, and his chains fell away with its departure. He stretched his wings and sang his song, and the sky was his once again. He soared and dipped and perched where he pleased, and sang what he pleased, and smiled when he pleased, for everything had begun to please him._

_Ami, __who__ was happy for her previous team-mate, was currently sitting on a chair on her balcony, trying to get a tan, but it __was__n't__ working __that well. _

_Thud _

_Ami opened her closed eyes when she heard the sound. It was a letter that had landed __i__n front of her door. She sighed. This was going to get painful. She carefully sat up and immediately wished that she hadn't moved. Instead of a tan she had got__ten__ burned and looked like a newly boiled shrimp. _

_She muttered under her breath and __crawled__ over to the door, careful not to make her arms touch her sides, __holding__ them far from her body. When she finally reached the door she looked __down__ at the letter and noticed that it was bright red. _

Oh shit,_ she thought and bent down in a weird angle._

_Her feet were at least four feet apart and her arms were still far way from her body. She carefully took the letter in her hands and frowned. She was just as red as the letter. _

"_This is the worst day of my life . . ." she muttered under her breath and she really had the right to say that as well. _

_Her day had started when s__he had thought that it was Saturday, when she was supposed to meet her brother at five o'clock in the morning for a mission, and had therefore jumped from her bad to her wardrobe when she saw that the clock was already six in the morning. After she had tossed her clothes on with her socks in two different colours, her trousers back to front, still __in __her pyjama shirt and only one shoe, and went to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. _

_It was when she poured milk into her glass that she __realised __that it wasn't Saturday. She __saw__ her calendar on one of the cupboards and saw that it was only Thursday. Her jaw dropped and the milk she was __pouring__ stream__ed__down onto __the floor since the was glass she __was holding was overflowing now._

"_Damn it!" she shouted and had to clean her 'oh so needed' mess up. _

_The day had__ continued like that until she decided to just sit down and do nothing, because if she did nothing, nothing __else __could happen __to her, right?_

_WRONG! __She could now add sunburn to her list of 'bad things that happened to Ami today'._

_But she didn't have time to think about that right now; she had just received a letter. It really was a beautiful__ly written__letter, so she knew the __content had to be something __really __special. It was in the brightest red she's ever seen and her name stood on it with neat, big, blue letters. _

_She frowned a__s she__ opened the letter. A blue paper la__y__ in it and it was in the same blue colour as the text on the letter had been. She began reading a__s__ her eyes grew __bigger__ for each sentence. _

"_The bloody hell!?" she shouted and fainted, and by doing __so,__ she also dropped the letter on the floor._ Damn this day, _she thought before loosing all of her consciousness._

_Dear Ami,_

_Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato  
request the honour of your presence at their marriage  
on Saturday, the sixth of June at five o'clock in the evening  
Backyard of the great Sannin Jiraya's house_  
_Konohagakure_

_Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato were getting married. _

_June __sixth__ was a gorgeous day. Gorgeous! The sun was shining, the sky was bright blue, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. It did get a bit on the warm side, but that was certainly nothing Minato and Kushina __would__ complain about. _

_Minato and Kushina spent the traditional night before the wedding apart and didn't see each other until the 5pm ceremony. Both of them were very calm during the day - for a while it seemed like any other day, even though Kushina was the girl everyone s__aw__ wandering around town in a button up shirt with her hair done and veil on! Even after the photography began, Kushina's bridesmaids and herself discussed being strangely calm - none of them felt nervous at all. _

_Kushina's bridesmaids were actually Ami and another girl called Mitarashi Haruki who was only fifteen years old, but her mom was a very close friend to Minato. _

_Anyway, the calmness changed as soon as they started to walk to the ceremony site. Kushina's bridesmaid was completely calm, maybe a little energetic, but Kushina was starting to feel a bit queasy with __nerves__. _

_She never thought she would get nervous, but she certainly __was now.__ It wasn't the "I want to run away" nervous__--__ more of the "I can't believe it's already here" nervous. The nervousness faded out as soon as she caught __a__ glimpse of Minato waiting __in__ the backyard of Jiraiya's house, though. He looked so handsome and Kushina couldn't wait for him to see her in her dress. The nerves dissolved into joy and she spent the rest of the day smiling! _

_She also couldn't believe that she had rejected Minato at first. But her previous fiancée had found out that Kushina had talked with another man and even though he knew that Kushina was faithful with him, nothing __went back to the way it was __before, and as time passed by and their wedding got closer, Kushina realised that she didn't love hi__m__ anymore. She loved Minato. _

_She hadn't told Minato about this but . . . she had actually fled from __their__ wedding. But she hadn't time to think about that now; she was getting married for God's sake! And to Minato! _

_The ceremony went beautifully, as did the family photos afterwards, even though Kushina no__r__ Minato had any parents. Jiraiya and Tsunade __were__ just like parents to Minato and were therefore __in__ the picture. Ami, who had befriended Kushina since her arrival to Konoha, was like a sister to Kushina so she was also __in__ the picture. _

_The ceremony was held right on the grass of Jiraiya's garden, in the outskirts of Konoha. He actually __lived__ close to a lake so you could see the water from where they stood. The water was __a __gorgeous, __sparkling blue, and __the grass was shimmering: it __couldn't have been more perfect._

_Minato and Kushina only had __a __total nine guests, all direct friends or significant others of the bridal party. There was Tsunade, Jiraiya, Katsuo from Minato's mission, Mitarashi Anko and her mom Mitarashi Ani, Sarutobi -even though he was the celebrant, __and__ a guest as well - Minato's new Genin team was there; Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito and Rin with that strange last name. _

_Minato and Kushina's site consisted of a dried grapevine archway, decorated in fuchsia/light pink roses, __ten__ chairs covered in white linen and tied with fuchsia sashes, aisle liners with white organza and fuchsia/light pink roses, and fuchsia/light pink rose petals on the grass. _

_Their celebrant who actually was Sarutobi, since he was the Hokage, put together the most gorgeous service for them, all aspects of the ceremony reflected their personalities and history perfectly. There was nothing they did purely because it was expected... it was all them! They decided against having music, as the sounds of the birds and leaves dancing in the wind were too beautiful to drown out. _

_The time came, and Kushina made her passage down the isle. The small crowd was dead silent, and even the birds hushed as she came into view. So elegant and charming: her steps could have made the grass grown in the desert._

_Of course, none of this is true, really. Though she looked gorgeous, and though the crowd hushed, it was quite obvious that she had no idea what she was doing in heels. She wobbled and jerked and her heels sunk into the soft Earth beneath her as she made a pain-stakingly slow effort to make it down the isle alive. _

_And she did. Just not until after she fell flat on her face in the grass. _

_"Aagh!" she screeched attractively, her boquet tumbling from her hands as she tripped. _

_The crowd was so surprised by her fall that they first did nothing, then laughed, and, at long last, Jiraiya bent down and pulled her to her feet._

_"You're not quite there, Kushina, just a little further," he laughed, patting her on the back and sending her to her knees once more. _

_When the time came that Kushina made to her destination, Minato was laughing so hard that Sarutobi had to clear his throat - and Kushina had to stomp on his toes - in order to get him to focus. _

_"Dearly beloved," Sarutobi said over the giggles floating about Minato. "We are gathered here today to join the two who stand before me in such as cherished matrimony. With eyes only for one-another, and hearts given as gifts are, they will forever love only one another . . . trust me. Love is too great to fool, and even when you are blind to your love, your heart will lead you on your way, even if pain may arise alon the way. You will spend your days as happy as you are now, with the same smiles and the same eyes. You will cry, but there will be happiness within. And when you are apart, as they say, one will cry and the other will taste salt. Your house will fill with love, and you will welcome all into your home, full of peace and contentment. You will love." Here, he flipped a page and cleared his throat. "Do you, Minato Namikaze, take Kushina as your wife, to love until the stars fall and to hold until your arms are cold?" _

_"Mmm, I do," said Minato, smiling and wiggling and looking at Kushina like one would an angel. _

_"And do you, Uzumaki Kushina, take Minato as your husband, to smile upon until there is nothing to smile upon and to accept smiles from until you can no longer see him smile?" _

_"I do," said Kushina, wringing the stems of her boquet. _

_"Do any object to this marriage?" _

_"Just kiss already!" a voice shouted from the crowd._

_"Obito!" shouted a female voice and Minato thought it sounded very much like his only female student._

_Sarutobi smiled. "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride." _

_Minato, more gleeful and giddy than the day Kushina returned to him, threw his arms about his bride and tipped her down - as if she wasn't unstable enough in her heals - and pressed his lips to hers, relishing the smile on her lips. When she finally dropped to the ground, taking him with her, ceremony seemed to formally end, and everyone was out of their seats and cheering._

_The atmosphere and the entire ceremony __was__ very warm and loving and everybody was cheering at the newly married couple. _

_With that small of a group, it was easy to see how truly happy everyone was. No one was left out and they all had a fantastic time. While it was definitely a bit warm, they all hung in there and made it the most fantastic day ever. Since they decided not to have their reception until the following night, Sunday the seventh, they __were able to spend the __entire afternoon with their photographer. _

_The photographer was __absolutely brilliant and Kushina, Minato and the rest of the people there had the best time taking photos. __What was even better than that, was the fact that neither__ Minato nor Kushina had ever felt so happy together before __in their entire lives__. _

_Not long after the wedding and the honeymoon was over Kushina found out that she was pregnant with a baby boy. _


	29. I'll never leave you

**Chapter Twenty Nine: I'll Never Leave You**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2008  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

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"So, that's how you met kaa-san," Naruto said, looking at his father in awe, from the corner of his eyes, since he was lying on Minato's right arm with his body against Minato's side.

"Yes, that was how we met, and got together. Shortly after, we had you," Minato answered with a smile. He suddenly felt sadness over the loss of his beloved wife. He shook himself out of it when he saw Naruto staring at him curiously. "I know that I really screwed up by giving her that poem, but I really was a love sick idiot, just like I told you," he continued as Naruto laughed.

Minato smiled again at the laugh that escaped Naruto mouth. It was so nice to hear, even though Naruto was hurt, both mentally and physically, because of something Minato couldn't prevent from happening, he still laughed. The smile that graced his lips suddenly faltered.

"Minato!" A voice shouted, pulling Minato out of his thoughts. He turned his head to the left as Naruto still lay on his right shoulder. Naruto, looking as confused as Minato at the moment, frowned.

"Tsunade? What's the matter?" Minato asked, looking at the blonde, who sat in a dark brown chair with crossed arms under her breasts.

"You've been in the water for over three hours now and you really gotta eat something," she answered as Minato frowned. Three hours?

"Have we been in the water for that long?" he asked as Tsunade nodded. Minato suddenly noticed that she tried to keep a smile from forming on her lips. "What's going on Tsunade-san?"

"Oh, you haven't noticed that either?" Tsunade asked and actually let a bit of the smile show itself on her red lips. "Look at the clock on the wall and then at Naruto," she said and let a full-fledged smile grace her lips.

Minato frowned again, deeper this time and then turned his head to look at the clock, which hung above the door they had entered, and noticed that it was already 4pm Worriedly, Minato thought about Naruto. Poor kid had to be starving! Children his age needed to eat every third or fourth hour, and Naruto hadn't even eaten before entering the pool, to avoid getting cramps. Minato cursed himself for forgetting about the time and then looked at Naruto since Tsunade had said so.

His eyes widened. Naruto was kicking his legs.

"Woah! You're moving your legs! You're moving your legs!" Minato screamed as Naruto tensed a bit at the loud sound of his dad's voice. "Oh, I'm sorry Naruto," Minato said quickly when he realised that.

"It's okay," Naruto answered, tiredly.

Minato also realised that Naruto was exhausted from trying so hard at moving his legs.

"Time to get out, don't you think?" Minato asked as Naruto smiled a tired smile.

"Hai, but thanks for telling all about kaa-san and how you met. She sounded like such a wonderful person. I wish I could have known her," Naruto said, a bit sadly, then brightened up, "But it was fun to swim when you talked about her!" Naruto finished happily as he flashed Minato a foxy grin.

"I'm glad to hear that," Minato answered, as he gave Naruto an identical smile back.

As soon as they left the pool, Minato just barely got Naruto out of his swimming trunks and into a pair of boxers, before Naruto fell asleep.

Minato couldn't help but smile at the sight of his son, sleeping in his arms with a peaceful face and steady, but short breaths.

"He's really tired, but I'm actually surprised that he was able to move his legs in such a short amount of time. He has barely moved them at all since the Tsuwamono incident. His wounds had to mostly heal before he could even start with this training, so this progress is stunning," Tsunade commented to Minato while he wrapped Naruto carefully in a blanket so that he wouldn't get cold and wake up.

"Yeah . . .but I think that the meal will have to wait don't you?" Minato asked as he smiled at Tsunade.

Tsunade smiled at that. However, her smile soon became a frown as she thought about Tsuwamono and Kaikou.

"There is something I want to talk with you about, Minato. It's about Naruto and his recovery," Tsunade began. Minato knew that this was something bad but at the same time very positive.

"What?" Minato asked, as he subconsciously held his son closer to his body.

"I may be old and my time to move on is getting closer, but I can see things other people may not notice that easily, and I've noticed something about you Minato," Tsunade continued as Minato frowned, what was she getting at? "You talked about Yin and Yang chakra before and about Kyūbi and the way you did it . . .but there's something more behind it. You also mentioned a . . .an un-dead was it?"

"What's your point Tsunade-san?" Minato asked feeling worried. What did Tsunade know?

"My point is that you know how to remove Kyūbi with the help of an un-dead," Tsunade stated plainly as Minato's eyes went wide and filled with surprise. She knew?

"How . . .?" Minato asked with a weak voice and even though he wanted to say more, his voice failed him.

"You've spaced out a lot lately for one thing. You've been thinking so much that I know that you've got a plan of some sort, and there is something telling me that it isn't the best of plans," Tsunade answered and bit her lip. "Ever since you told me about Kaikou I've been worried, and you were supposed to tell me something back then, but what was it?"

"_Well, if I seal away both chakras I'm sure that Kyūbi won't break free, but . . .then I'll have all of Kyūbi's chakra inside me together with Kaikou . . .that can't be good," Minato said as Tsunade nodded in agreement. _

"_True, but there doesn't seem to be another way," Tsunade pointed out as Minato thought about it._

"_I don't know. I . . ." Minato stopped and had a frown on his face. Something had just hit him, and it had hit him hard. _

"_I just got an idea," he said slowly and now it was Tsunade's turn to frown._

"_Huh? Nani?" She asked and actually smiled._

"_It may be risky but I think that it may work, you see, Kaikou wants my soul, Kyūbi wants his freedom, they are always talking to each other so-"_

"Naruto's scream interrupted us and after that you never told me about your plan," Tsunade finished. Minato could hear that she was both curious and worried.

"Well, to put it frankly, my idea was to seal away both the Yin and Yang chakra from Kyūbi into my body and then let Kaikou take the both me and Kyūbi to the Shinigami. Kaikou needs to get a soul to the Shinigami and Kyūbi's soul is the strongest one when whole, so I thought that . . .why not give the Shinigami Kyūbi's soul instead of mine because when he has taken a soul he can't exchange it for something else. So the soul is stuck in the Shinigami's stomach for eternity," Minato explained, as Tsunade's facial expression was unreadable.

"You're an idiotic idiot with idiot written on your forehead, did you know that you idiot?" Tsunade asked, as Minato couldn't help but smile.

"Well, now I know, but that's the only way . . . I don't know how I can prevent one of us from dying by not doing this," Minato said, causing Tsunade to worry even more.

"Baka," she said and Minato smiled again.

"Naruto is strong right now, not as strong as a normal person, but strong enough to go through with this plan of mine. But there is one thing that worries me," said Minato as Tsunade tensed. "By doing this, Naruto may turn back to his normal self again. I know that I said I was positive that Naruto would remain as a three-year-old, but there is a chance that he won't either," Minato explained as Tsunade frowned_. But that __would be a__ good thing __wouldn't__ it? _

"I know that you're thinking 'but wouldn't that be a good thing?' and yes, normally it would . . .but . . . if he stays like this," he gestured to Naruto in his current state, "I might get my chance to be a real father from the beginning," Minato finished and sighed. "It sounds selfish, and it probably is . . ." he trailed off.

"It is a bit selfish, but it may be what's best for Naruto. We have to think about that for him too. What about his amnesia?" Tsunade asked as Minato frowned.

"I've thought pretty hard about that, and I have no clue what's going to happen. His amnesia may stay or it'll disappear," Minato answered, as he looked up at Tsunade who closed her eyes. Both because she was tired and frustrated.

"Ne, Tsunade-san?" Minato asked after a pregnant minute.

Tsunade looked up with a 'huh?' and waited for Minato to continue. "Naruto told me that he was both glad for being the host of Kyūbi as well as scared and sad," Minato said as Tsunade frowned and smiled a sad smile. "If you read between the lines, you'll understand that he was happy to be the host instead of someone else."

"It's typical him, he's happy if other people around him are happy," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed.

_Naruto looked up at his face. "Honestly . . . he made me stronger. I know that I have Kyūbi inside me, but the first time I found out I decided something . . . I wanted to become strong with my own power so I could show the villagers that I was a person just like them . . . but . . . thanks to Kyūbi I have been able so save many of my friends and other people . . . and I'm __beginning to __think different__ly__ about him __now__ . . . sometimes I just wanted to die but I never gave up . . ." Naruto said. It was hard to hear such a little boy speak about something like death and monsters in the way he did, __such __an easy way._

Minato sighed for what felt like the millionth time.

"I'm hurt by seeing him like this. It's eating me up," he said. For the next few minutes, Tsunade didn't know what to say.

"He's someone who wants to keep all the pain away from the people closest to him, but at the same time he doesn't want them to see his own pain. I think he's . . . insecure. He is probably too insecure to tell anyone about his problems," Tsuande finally said as Minato frowned. He knew that what Tsuande was saying about Naruto was true, but it scared him. It was not the way he wanted his son to feel. It wasn't . . .normal.

"Insecure?" asked Minato as looked at Tsunade with a knowing but at the same time confused gaze. With a sigh he hugged Naruto closer to his chest and held him tightly, like a lifeline, that he would never let go, as if his life depended on it, which ironically, was not far from the truth.

"He smiles so much because he is insecure," Tsunade went on and shook her head so that the blonde hair fell around her head. "The last thing he wants to do is to bother people . . . so he has learnt to keep everything inside himself, away from us. He never asks for help or tells about his worries because of the fear of bothering someone with them . . ." she closed her eyes idly. "He has never had any family to count on, anyone to care for him . . . so he has cared for himself."

"He has me now," Minato said as Tsunade smiled again.

"Yes, he does, and he's happier than ever before."

It was really strange that Naruto hadn't grown cold and uncaring, only looking down at the people around him. Always by himself with everyone hating him . . . it was a wonder Naruto hadn't turned out like Gaara. But then again, Gaara's own father had been trying to kill him since he had only been a little kid. Naruto had been left in peace, somewhat anyway. Minato also knew that a few important people had come into Naruto's life who really made a difference: Iruka, Kakashi, Jiraiya-sensei, Sasuke and Sakara, making Naruto no longer truly alone.

Then all those horrible things happened to Naruto as well, so horrible that any other person would go insane. When he went through the toughest parts, he was only a little kid. He had been beaten so badly that not even Kyūbi could heal him overnight. He had nearly been raped at some times too, but thankfully, people that cared for him had showed up and prevented the worst from happening. He had been stabbed with kunais and shurikens and they had trapped him in genjutsus that scared him so much that he couldn't sleep for weeks.

"I want to do whatever I can to help Naruto," Minato finally said. Tsunade had told him about the beatings, attempted rapes and all the rest. "I want to help him because despite what people have done to him, despite how they treat him, he still smiles to them. Still tries to help them. This was not the life I had envisioned for my son. I wanted him to viewed as a hero of this village. Naruto was never meant to be treated as a monster. Because he is my son, it's my responsibility and if I didn't care for him, I wouldn't be able to call myself human let alone his father," Minato finished as Tsunade smiled a sad smile at him when she saw tears run down his cheeks.

"I know that he's thankful for having you as his dad," Tsunade said and dried his tears away, while Minato made a face when she did so.

"I'm glad to hear that, but about this plan," Minato said as he dried the rest of the tears himself. "It's pretty easy to seal both of Kyūbi's chakra into my body, all I have to do is to have the pendant around my neck and do the Shiki Fūjin again."

"Are you out of your mind!?" screamed Tsunade as Minato winced, looking down at Naruto, who shifted in Minato's arms, but didn't wake.

"Shh! We don't want to wake Naruto up, now do we?" asked Minato with a stern whisper.

"Gomen, but you're seriously out of your mind. You said that sealing Kyūbi away would be easy but by using Shiki Fūjin, you'll die and-"

"No I won't," Minato interrupted as Tsunade frowned. "By having the pendant around my neck at the time when I perform the jutsu, I'll be able to live. You see, this is a reversed Shiki Fūjin. Normally, you draw the seal on the victim and make the correct hand seals and so on, but this time, the seal is drawn on a large scroll that this pendant is the key to," Minato explained and hoped that Tsunade would understand.

"You do the same hand seals as when using the real Shiki Fūjin and then place your hands on the scroll that the seal is on. I just have to make sure that all of Kyūbi's chakra is sealed into the seal and then it will be completed," Minato finished as Tsunade's frown was still showing on her face.

"But shouldn't the seal be on you since Kyūbi's supposed to be sealed away into you?" she asked as Minato smiled a sad smile.

"The seal that is on that scroll is connected to my mind and body from the beginning, so there is nothing to worry about," Minato answered as Tsunade looked down at her feet.

"What happens if you aren't able to seal Kyūbi away?" she asked and as she looked up, Minato's facial expression gave her the answer to her question: He would die.

"It's not an option," Minato finally said, swallowing hard. "But after I've sealed Kyūbi's chakra into my body, I'll probably faint and that's when I've got my chance to get Kaikou to take Kyūbi's soul with him to the Shinigami. And to make him to that, I'll put a seal on both of their bodies that connects them both mentally and physically. If they're connected like that, the Shinigami believes that Kaikou has my soul and will thereby take them to his stomach. Kyūbi will disappear and Kaikou will die," Minato finished, looking into Tsunade's eyes.

"So be it then," Tsunade answered, taking a deep breath.

When Naruto had finally woken up, he got the food that he really needed to eat. Minato noticed though, that something was bothering the little blonde, as he had been fairly quiet and almost pensive while he was eating. So Minato decided to ask him about it.

"Is something bothering you, Naru-chan?" he asked gently as Naruto looked up from his recently finished meal. His large blue eyes showed a lot of emotions.

"I . . .I- I'm just confused. You have been more serious and quiet since our swim lesson," Naruto answered. "Is something wrong?" Naruto asked Minato, looking very intently at him.

"No," Minato lied quickly, putting his hand behind his head. "I'm just tired after swimming so much, you even fell asleep, so I think you understand," Minato answered with a nervous laugh.

Naruto believed him, so he smiled back just as much. "Okay, but I'm still tired actually," he said and yawned big.

"It's okay to sleep again if you want to. You were stunning today so you can sleep just as much as you want to okay?" Minato said as Naruto smiled again, and soon after that he fell asleep.

Minato's face turned very serious as he looked at his now, sleeping son. He had thought through this plan for a while now, and fairly carefully. He was sure that he had covered all the bases to make this work. It just had to work; the stakes were too high if he failed.

Both he and Naruto's lives hung in the balance. Minato really wanted to be a father to Naruto, and be there for him, like he always wanted to be. This was his chance to exchange that dream and make it a reality. The risk was that Kaikou may know what he was going to do already, and if he and Kyūbi came up with their own plan to stop him . . . Minato shook his head.

This was not the time to second guess himself, or go back now. He gently caressed his son's face and taking a deep sigh, resigned himself to this fate. It was now or never.

"Is everything ready?" asked Minato as he entered a fairly small room with a still sleeping Naruto in his arms.

Tsunade was standing in the room, as she glanced over and saw Naruto in Minato's arms.

"You sure you want to go through with this?" she asked as Minato nodded solemnly. He was dead serious about this whole thing that it really scared him.

"This scroll you summoned, I have to say that I'm impressed. Everything is so detailed and clear," Tsunade commented as she looked down at the huge scroll that lay on the floor.

Minato had summoned the toad keeper and the scroll beforehand. The toad had been very surprised to see Minato alive and had asked many questions, and of course, Minato had answered them all before waving the toad away, leaving the scroll behind.

"Damn it Minato, I'll ask again, are you really sure about this?" Tsunade asked again as Minato bit his lower lip.

"Yes, I am, Tsunade. I'm not going back," he said with finality as Tsunade sighed.

"Okay," she finally answered, clearly still unsure about all of this herself but resigned her thoughts. _I guess his mind is really made up, but I hope this works_, she thought, worriedly.

Minato carefully put Naruto's sleeping body down on a quilt that lay next to the open scroll. Then he gently lifted up Naruto's shirt, to reveal his bare stomach. Lastly, Minato put the pendant on and sat down between Naruto and the scroll.

"I better see you both alive when I come back in," Tsunade warned sternly and went out from the room and closed the door with a click.

_She really does care, doesn't she? _Minato thought as he looked down at his sleeping son's face. It was so peaceful and unknowing of what awaited. Minato sighed. He had to do this quickly, sensing that Kaikou had to know about the plan now and if he didn't go through with it soon . . . it would be too late, if it wasn't already.

Minato sighed again, reminding himself that this was the only way he and Naruto could live happily together. He didn't know what exactly would happen to Naruto, if he would grow up or get his memories back, but even if that happened, at least he would have his son, and he could be his father. Looking at Naruto one last time, he shook his head and began doing hand seals abnormally fast while he was muttering some words with closed eyes. He opened his eyes but continued doing the hand seals and muttering, he looked at the scroll and saw that the seal was glowing, he looked at Naruto's stomach and saw that it showed Kyūbi's seal as well.

"Here goes nothing," he said and slammed both of his hands down on the seals.

Naruto's eyes suddenly opened. His mouth opened in surprise as well, but no sound came out.

Minato had a painful facial expression and he was very pale. The other seal, which was on the scroll, was glowing and actually burned Minato's hand.

"_Shiki Fūjin!"_ Minato screamed as everything disappeared in a white light, just like that night over fifteen years ago.

Everything was swallowed in a bright light, which danced, flicked, and sparked. It encompassed everything, and it seemed as if nothing but the light existed. But if you looked more closely, you would see a blonde man lying in the white, breaking everything, pale as a sheet. His hands were burned and cold sweat was running down his forehead. He had a black kunai around his neck; but it wasn't exactly black. It was shifting between black, red, blue and yellow and it looked like a fight was taking place between more than just two sources. It was if the whole world was in chaos.

_Minato was fighting for his and Naruto's lives. He fought for their happiness, their future and their love. He was fighting for everything worth fighting for._

"_You're as good as gone!" Minato shouted at a man looking exactly like him except for the fact that he was covered in black: His skin, hair, clothes and even eyes were black._

_Minato had never fought Kaikou properly before so this was it. If he didn't do it right, he might not be able to survive. He hadn't done much since he __arrived here __though. When he sealed __Kyūbi__ away with Shiki Fūjin, everything went so fast. At first he was by Naruto's side sealing away __Kyūbi__ from him and the next he was standing in a large room that reminded him__ of __Tsuwamono's headquarters, or__ . . .__ it wasn't Tsuwamono's rea__l__ headquarters since Kaikou had created everything, but still__ . . ._

_They hadn't __spoken__ much either, only stared at each other with hateful glares, at least from Minato's side; it wasn't so easy to read Kiakou's emotions __with__ that face._

_Minato currently stood in a fighting stance and didn't dare break the eye contact with Kaikou. Suddenly, Kaikou made the first move and everything began. He through a punch at Minato but missed since Minato jumped backwards avoiding it with __his agility__._

_As__ Minato ran forward, __aiming a punch__, Kaikou dodged __it just by__ backing up, but the next punch grazed his chest. Minato's third punch was clumsier than the other ones and set him off balance. Kaikou smirked again and jumped up in the air._

_Minato put his hand on the ground and __threw his feet__ over his head and landed with grace on the ground. He turned his head towards Kaikou who landed on ground with a small thud.  
__**  
"Only going to use taijutsu I see**__** . . .**__**?"**__mocked__ Kaikou looking at Minato who dried away some dirt from his face._

"_You're a dead man Kaikou," Minato answered a__s__ Kaikou only laughed._

"_**No, I think you're mistaken, you see, you're the one who's going to die here,"**__ Kaikou answered after his __maniacal__ laugh. __**"'Cause I'm not planning to die before I give your soul to the Shinigami."**_

"_Is that a fact?__" Minato __asked as he __narrowed his eyes._

"_**Yeah, **__**that's a fact for certain, because you won't be leaving here alive," **__Kaikou __answered with a smirk._

_Minato answered with a hard solid punch to the centre of Kaikou's chest. He attempted to block it, __but as he did, he found that he was unable to do so because Minato had caught his hand just when he was about to use it__. Kaikou took a hit to the stomach. _

_"_I beg to differ with you . . ."_began Minato __as he__ kicked Kaikou in the stomach with __such__ force that __it __made Kaikou crash into the __far__ wall, "You talk too much shit__ . . .__"_

_Minato was panting heavily already as he looked at Kaikou to see if he was going to continue __the__ fight. __Dust__ surrounded Kaikou so Minato couldn't see him clearly, but he __knew__ something was there._

_When the dust finally cleared, Minato's eyes widened. He saw that Kaikou wasn't there. Instead of a human body, there was dirt forming a body. Kaikou had used some kind of an earth clone._

_Kaikou appeared right in front of Minato with a smirk plastered on his face. He punched Minato right in the face __causing__ Minato's head to __jerk__ backwards. When Minato was __about__ to hit the ground Kaikou used his foot to throw Minato up in the air again. As he did so, he used a hand covered with stone to punch him in the stomach again._

_Minato shouted out __in__ pain, as blood came out of his mouth. He tried to avoid as __many __punches as possible by rolling on the ground or using his feet and fists to __block __the punches __as best he could._

_The next couple of punches grazed Minato, doing less damage, but __he still felt it plenty. __ Finally, he managed to stand up and dodge a punch __while catching __Kaikou's arm that was covered in the rock hard stone, and locked it up behind his back. Minato then punched him in the ribs, repeatedly, as many times as he could. When Minato had drilled Kaikou enough times he let him go as Kaikou fell to his knees._

"_**This is so **__**pointless**__**, you know that**__** . . .**__**"**__ said Kaikou as Minato's eye twitched in annoyance. He hadn't used any ninjutsu yet because he wanted to see how good this man really was, but also __he had chosen not to use any ninjutsu because if he did,__ Kaikou would probably use it more as well and that __would not bode well for Minato. Kaikou __had already used an earth clone jutsu and __some kind of __stone or rock jutsu, __Minato wasn't totally sure what it had been._

He can use earth jutsus,_ thought Minato as Kaikou stood up on his feet. _If I can use water jutsus on him he won't be able to use the earth jutsus since the dirt will only turn to mud.

_Suddenly Kaikou laughed. __**"**__**How about we stop playing around and show me what you've really got..."**__ he said a__s he __balled his fist back up and nailed Minato hard in the chest._

_Minato wasn't prepared __for this, and went flying backwards__, hitting the wall hard. __His breathing was becoming more labored now.  
__  
__**"**__**I know you are better than this, so stop with the kid stuff. **__**I want to see what you really can do . . ."**__taunted __Kaikou as he walked towards Minato. He grabbed Minato by his collar and lifted him up in the air. "Are you the Fourth Hokage or not? If so, you'll have to prove it because I __don't __believe that __you really are if this is your fighting level. You may as well give up now, because you'll never beat me like this."_

_Minato didn't answer. _I guess he's right. It's time to pull out all the stops. No more playing around. This is for you, Naruto, for us,_ Minato thought as he prepared himself to get serious . . ._


	30. Survival

**Chapter Thirty: Survival**_  
Written by MrsHellman 2008__  
Betad by Carrie2sky_

_Fightscne's written by Sarinax_

_

* * *

_

Naruto was lying on the floor next to Minato's body and felt as if his whole body was on fire. He didn't know what had happened, but he was sure that it was something really bad, which would explain why he felt this itching, but at the same time really painful feeling on his stomach.

He swallowed hard and looked to his left where he saw Minato's body. He was pale as a sheet and it didn't look like he was okay.

"Otou-san?" Naruto asked as he shook his dad's shoulder. "Otou-san? Wake up otou-san, is everything okay?" he asked as he continued to shake his dad.

Minato didn't move and Naruto was getting very worried.

"Otou-san?" he tried again as he moved his body closer to his dad. "Otou-san!?"

The door suddenly burst open and in came Tsunade with a worried frown on her face. She looked around frantically and then she noticed Naruto who was shaking his dad's limp body.

"Naruto," she said more to herself than to Naruto.

"Naruto, please stop it!" Tsunade shouted at Naruto who had begun crying in his attempt to wake his dad up.

"Otou-san!"

Tsunade ran over to him and picked him up in her arms, but Naruto struggled and tried to move towards his dad once again. He wanted to be close to him in his condition. He wanted to make sure that his dad was going to wake up.

"Naruto, you have to listen to me!" shouted Tsunade again. "Your dad is doing something very important and I can assure you that he's going to be okay," she said as she looked at Naruto's tear streaked face, and that's when she noticed it; Naruto's whiskers were gone from his face.

The three marks on each cheek that had so clearly defined Naruto his whole life, were now gone, with no trace of them left.

"He made it," she said out loud, not noticing that Naruto got away from her death grip and moved to his otou-san's body again, desperately trying to wake him up. "He removed Kyūbi . . .it really did work."

_Minato struggled to look at Kaikou clearly due to the lack of oxygen._

_Kaikou had a kunai in his other hand __and stabbed Minato in the shoulder with__ it. Minato's eyes __went wide__ open in pain and shock. __Coughing violently,__Minato managed__ to deliver a good solid punch to Kaikou's face. Kaikou hadn't seen it coming and stepped backwards as he dropped Minato to the ground._

_Minato landed on his feet __with __his head hanging down. _

"_**You have two choices**__** . . .**__**"**__ said Kaikou looking at Minato who was panting __heavily.__**"You can give up and come with me to the Shinigami, or you can continue with this 'so called fight' and lose in a very **__**agonizing **__**way**__** . . .**__**"**__ he finished.  
_

_Minato opened his mouth to say something; anything at all, but it seemed like Kaikou wanted to finish this quickly. The man's arm came at him and Minato just dodged it. Kaikou's arms grazed his head and throat. He flipped backwards, and landed on the ground on shaky legs. Minato drew a few kunai, but before he could throw them he was forced to dodge a wave of what appeared to be __a flock of__ flying fireballs._

Damn it! _Minato thought. _It wouldn't surprise me if he could use all of the five elements in his jutsus!

_Kaikou glare__d__ at him and block__ed__ his kunai with __a small shield of fire__. Minato curse__d__ under his breath and ma__de__ a few hand seals. He r__an__ at Kaikou hoping that __his idea will work. __ A bright blade of energy was being created in his hand. The blade grew and grew and its form started to change. Soon, a huge shuriken __was__ created a__s__ Minato smiled at Kaikou._

_Minato __ran__ forward and was just about to strike Kaikou with the giant shuriken when Kaikou lashe__d__ out with his foot, hitting Minato in the stomach._

_**Poof**_

"_**A Shadow Clone**__** . . .**__**"**__ said Kaikou and smirked at what had been the giant shuriken in the Shadow Clones hands: a real small shuriken._

_The real Minato appear__ed__ behind Kaikou and __he__ noticed this. He turned around when the real Minato was about to stab him with another huge shuriken. Kaikou delivered another kick to __Minato's__ stomach and once again Minato disappeared in a cloud of smoke._

_The ground under Kaikou start__ed__ to shake and this time he __wasn't__ prepared. Minato appeared from beneath him. He had used an earth jutsu to be under ground. Minato then punched Kaikou in the stomach with such force that Kaikou's entire body jerked upwards._

_Kaikou flip__ped__backwards and landed on his hands and knees gasping for breath while glaring at Minato. Kaikou had no reason to go easy on him._

_Dodging a wall of water from Minato's Mizurappa no Jutsu (Violent Water Wave Technique) Kaikou __realis__ed that he had two options. He can either go all out on Minato, get both of them killed in one blow or try to kill Minato as fast as possible with something he won't suspect, but in that case; what?_

"_**I guess I just have to deal with it quick**__** . . .**__**"**__ sighed Kaikou a__s he__ looked at Minato who stared back at him. Kaikou suddenly felt a new chakra behind him._

_Kaikou turned around and blocked one of the chakra-covered hands with a kunai causing the Minato who had attacked to shout out loud while making a painful face. Obviously this was the real Minato since he didn't disappear in smoke. Kaikou punched Minato right in the face. He wanted to play with his __prey__ some more before __completely devouring__ it._

_Minato fell backward, nearly unconscious but he could see Kaikou's shocked expression when he realised that the kunai Minato had held in his hand contained not only chakra, but also a seal. _

"_Gotcha," __grinned __Minato a__s__ Kaikou cursed._

Naruto was sitting on Tsunade's lap staring at nothing. He was pale and he had dark bags under his eyes. Sakura and Kakashi were in the room as well and they looked exhausted and worried.

"So Kyūbi has been removed for good?" Sakura asked as Tsunade nodded.

"He is, but Minato-san is trying to get it away for good by putting a seal on its body," Tsunade said, purposefully not mentioning Kaikou or the rest of it.

"Is it working?" asked Kakashi, knowing that something more was involved in all of this.

"It looks like it, but he's been in a coma for three weeks now and we're not sure about his progress," Tsunade continued and looked down at Naruto who refused to look her in the eyes. She sighed at his stubbornness.

Yes, Minato had been in a coma for three whole weeks and it was during that time he had fought Kaikou and put the seal on him, but none of the people in the world of living knew about that. During these three weeks something had happened elsewhere as well. Naruto had regained his normal weight since Kyūbi didn't slow down his healing process anymore and his skin was back to normal again as well, no more bruises or cuts.

"We'll just have to hope that everything will turn out as we hope," Tsunade said as Sakura and Kakashi sighed.

_Minato had fought Kaikou and put the seal on him. Now it was Kyūbi's turn and hopefully he would be able to put the seal on that overgrown fur ball. When the seal touches Kyūbi, his soul will be taken for Minato's and the Shinigami will make sure that both Kaikou and the soul come back to his stomach._

_Minato sighed and looked at Kaikou who __was__ currently glaring daggers at him._

"_**You think you've won, don't you?"**__ Kaikou __snarled. __ Minato didn't bother answering. __**"I'll let you know that you haven't! Do you really believe that a seal like this will defeat me!?" **__Kaikou screamed as Minato narrowed his eyes._

"_**There nothing you can do. You're destined to live for an eternity in the Shinigami's stomach, that's the price for using Shiki Fūjin and you already know that, so why are you fighting so hard?" **__Kaikou asked as Minato looked at him with a huge sigh escaping his lips. __**"Why do you fight so hard? Answer me!"**_

"_Why?" Minato asked as Kaikou looked at him, not __really knowing__ if Minato was asking himself the question out loud or if he was asking Kaikou why he should answer it. "Why am I fighting?" Kaikou got his answer. "I'm fighting because I've got a son in the world of the living and I've promised him that I'll never let anyone hurt him anymore. But I have to be by his side if I'm gonna keep that promise. Another reason is that I owe a lot of people a lot of things and can't just ignore it. They've always been there for me, but the I just left them, that's why I owe them, and that's the reasons to why I fight."_

"_**Long answer for something you could have summarized with one word," **__Kaikou said __disdainfully __as Minato narrowed his eyes again, __while frowning.__** "Love. The only good thing in that world you **__**were born **__**in.**__**You humans are **__**quite**__** pathetic; you're more pathetic than the lowest ranked creature in the whole universe**__. __**You've got war, starvation, wrongfulness, egoism,**__**discrimination, death and hate. Love seems to be the only good **__**thing you humans posses," **__Kaikou finished as Minato looked at him with stern eyes._

"_That's not the only things we __have__ in our world," Minato __answered as K__aikou crossed his arms, waiting to hear Minato's point of view on this. "We've got kindness, and people who look after each other, but sometimes __it does feel __like you hate another person, but it's just a misunderstanding. We've got helpfulness, we help people that are in need of help and we've got different kinds of love, that's something you demons obviously haven't noticed," Minato answered. "It can be friendly love, a love between a mother and her child, love between two people that want to create a family together, love between a thing and a human, you can love in different ways and love has no gender, so it can be love between two men or women as well as between a man and a woman."_

"_**That's something unique about your world, yes, but love leads to death as well," **__Kaikou sneered, and before Minato knew it, Kaikou attacked him again as Minato cursed._

"_Suirou no Justu!" Minato shouted a__s he__ made some hand seals. Kaikou narrowed his eyes and suddenly water surrounded his entire body._

_Kaikou looked at Minato in confusion, knowing that one had to touch the water to make it maintain its shape, but Minato wasn't touching the water prison._

**Seems like he can do more than just taijutsu after all**_**,**__ thought Kaikou with a wicked smile and noticed that Minato's eyes were a deadly blue colour. _

_Kaikou felt something surround his wrist so he looked down and noticed a hand, sticking up from the ground. What the__ . . ._

_Kaikou looked up at 'the Minato' that was now in front of him. 'The Minato' smiled and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The real Minato was under him, touching the water prison's surface._

"_**Idiot . . ."**__ said Kaikou, as his entire self became water as well. Minato, who was underground, felt that whatever had been in his water prison wasn't there anymore._

How . . .?_ began Minato but suddenly, he was being lifted up into the air. His entire body, minus his head was surrounded by mud. Minato screamed in pain as the mud contracted around his body, feeling his ribs break. _

"_You really thought that you had caught me didn't you . . .?" mocked Kaikou as Minato could see the mud around him form a head and then an upper body and arms._

_Kaikou looked at Minato from his position. He had been the mud that had surrounded Minato and now had reformed a body again._ _Minato cursed and gathered up some chakra in his legs_.

This has to work, or else I surely will get badly injured, or worse die_, he thought and lashed his legs out with an inhuman strength. The mud broke under the kick and Minato fell to the ground, hard. He saw the surprised face of Kaikou as he hit the ground bleeding and coughing._

_Minato hissed out of pain from his broken ribs as he kept his gaze on Kaikou who regarded him with the same emotionless face that he had used during the whole fight._

_Minato was once again on his feet and was stupid enough to attack Kaikou head on._

_As Minato ran towards him, Kaikou smiled and lifted his hands, forming the seals with some difficulty. His right hand came to his lips, concentrating, streaming his breath upwards. _

"_Suiton: Hahonryuu (Water: )!"_

_Hard water shot towards Minato and surrounded him. It was swirling around him and if Minato touch__ed__ the surface, he would actually burn himself. He was just about to jump up and out from the water prison when he noticed that he couldn't move his legs._

"_What the . . .?" he began and tried to move again but he couldn't._

_Minato looked down at his legs and saw that a clear but thick liquid was covering his legs from his feet up to his knees. He hadn't seen something like this before and it reminded him of some kind of glue._

"_What is this?" asked Minato as Kaikou smiled with evil and malicious pleasure._

"_**The preparation for your death . . ."**__ answered Kaikou and lifted his right hand towards the water and Minato. Minato could feel the water change and he stiffened._

"_What the bloody hell is this liquid?" asked Minato with a confused voice, revealing his__ plight__._

_Kaikou smiled that wicked smile again. __**"Did you really think that you would be able to beat me**__** . . .**__**? You used such a weak style of taijutsu and if you want to defeat an un-dead member you have to know a very high-level taijutsu, ninjutsu and even genjutsu**__** . . .**__** and to answer your question the liquid is a very lethal poison."**_

"_Shit!" cursed Minato as he felt his legs go numb. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" he continued his mantra._

"_**You've noticed it**__** . . .**__**"**__ said Kaikou, clearly enjoying every minute of this._

_Minato could only respond with a face full of pain._

"_**Even if I stopped this right now, you wouldn't be able to save your legs, they would never be useful again, and if I'm not mistaken**__** . . .**__** the poison has already spread through your body,"**__ Kaikou finished, with a very sadistic look on his face, as he watched Minato's struggle._

"_**You are as good as dead**__** . . .**__**"**__ said Kaikou as Minato's eyes widened in shock when Kaikou closed his open hand._

"_AAH!" An ear-piercing scream was heard along with a light thud, as the water splashed all over the ground. _

_A man stared at the other man on the floor and sighed. Minato turned around and went to find Kyūbi leaving a very injured Kaikou behind. Sometimes, genjutsus are more than simply illusions if handled in the right way. Kaikou had walked straight into his own trap._

_It didn't take Minato long to find __Kyūbi__ who looked as if he was actually waiting for Minato to show up._

"_**You're finally here," **__Kyūbi__announced as__ Minato winced when hearing the demon's voice. He hadn't heard __Kyūbi__'s voice like this before, yes he had heard when listening to Kaikou's and __Kyūbi__'s conversation, but he'd been in his real form back then, this time was different._

_Kyūbi__ was currently looking like any other human, with red hair, red eyes and thick whiskers on his cheeks. He nearly looked like Naruto and that scared Minato, this would be like fighting his own son._

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"_

_A clone appeared next to Minato as __Kyūbi__ let his gaze fall on the clone for a brief moment before returning it to the real Minato._

"_**I know how this will end already," **__Kyūbi__ stated__, as both of the Minato's frowned at the statement. __**"I saw your fight with Kaikou. He didn't fight you as he would have fought someone else. He went easy on you."**_

"_What?" Minato asked, clearly confused over hearing this from the mighty __Kyūbi__ no kitsune._

"_**Exactly what I said. It's not easy being one of the un-dead. He fought you but he didn't need to, and there is a reason why he looks like you," **__Kyūbi__ said __cryptically. __Minato didn't know if he was being tricked by the demon or if this was actually something very important to remember. __**"The Shinigami didn't know anything about Kaikou looking exactly like you, it was Kaikou's own choice. But when an un-dead decides to look like its victim, there's a **__**reason **__**behind it."**_

"_What do you mean?" Minato asked as his clone gulped._

"_**I'll tell you if just give me the chance," **__Kyūbi__ snarled__as Minato wisely shut his mouth.__** "I don't know why he decided to make that choice, but he had two reasons for doing it. The first reason is that if an un-dead looks like its victim it's connected with the victim and that means if the un-dead gets hurt or feels a particular feeling, the victim will feel it as well. The other reason is that when the un-dead dies, so will the victim. They are pretty much the same, but the result can kill."**_

_Minato's eyes widened. He__ certainly __hadn't felt any feelings__like that__,__ nor had he been hurt during particular moments. That meant that Kaikou would bring Minato with him if he died._

"_Kuso__ . . .__" Minato cursed and took a deep breath and exhaled, he was soon hyperventilating. "I'll die__ . . .__ so everything was in vain? All I ever did for Naruto__ . . .__ it has no meaning anymore__ . . .__"_

"_**It all has meaning, but listen closely now. Both Kaikou and I know about your seal idea and it's actually more complex than you thought at first. This seal is something special so when you placed it on Kaikou, he knew that everything was already over. That's why it was so easy defeating him," **__Kyūbi__ finished as Minato looked at him as if he was insane._

"_You're messing with me aren't you?" Minato finally __asked __as __Kyūbi__ sighed._

"_**I'm not, but I have to say that it was fun as long as it lasted and oh - one more thing to let you know. I made Naruto suffer, yes. But I gave him something in return as well**__," __Kyūbi__ said as both Minato's narrowed their eyes. __**"He lost a lot of his life by using the Demon Fox Cloak, but when I disappear, those life years he lost, will be returned,"**__ he __finished, while holding such an emotionless expression that __Minato didn't know what to believe._

"_**No questions," **__Kyūbi__interrupted sharply__, when Minato was about to ask something.__** "I won't answer them because some things should stay unknown. But I can**__** answer why I'm telling you all of this**__** . . .**__**" **__Kyūbi__ trailed off and looked down at the ground with sigh,__** "Everybody acts a little crazy when they know what awaits them on the other side, if you catch my meaning," **__he finished with a smirk. _

"_**This fight won't last long," **__he added._

_Two kunai flew straight towards Minato. He moved his body in a circle with his arms out, grabbing the kunai, as he twisted his body around. He flung them back at the users, which were clones of __Kyūbi__, hitting both of them in the chest. Minato suddenly heard a gush of water behind him, and when he turned around, he could see two other clones were pushed back by the flow. __His other __clone had helped him._

_They both looked to their left and saw __Kyūbi__ standing on top of a wall watching them. He slowly jumped down to the ground. _

_Minato wasted no time; he ran over towards __Kyūbi__, while changing the shape of his kunai that he held in his right arm into a piston-like ram, increasing the strength of the weapon.__Charging forward, with a well-aimed punch in __Kyūbi__'s direction, Minato was surprised when he slid right through __Kyūbi__'s body, as if it was an illusion. Instead of hitting __Kyūbi__, he ended up smashing the wall behind __Kyūbi__ instead._

Damn this world!_ he thought._

_Dust covered Minato's eyes and he couldn't see. He could still concentrate on the chakra near him to try and get a hit. He suddenly switched his other Kunai that he held into his left hand into a blade and swung it at where he 'felt' Kaikou. _

_Minato could feel his blade rip into someone. The blood ran down his arm and on to the ground. When the dust cleared, he saw whom he had killed. It was another clone and what he thought had been blood was water. He looked around and could see that __Kyūbi__ and Minato's clone were now fighting. The orignal Minato ran toward the two to help in the fight but Minato could feel heat from above so he stoped suddenly to protect himself._

_Kyūbi__ leaped through the air while spinning around, emitting fire from his mouth. It whirled its way over to Minato and Minato's clone. Thankfully the clone jumped in the way to protect Minato's body from being burned to dust._

"_**Catch me if you can!"**__Kyūbi__ taunted, loudly, as he __looked at Minato who didn't move. He made a new Kage Bunshin since the other one had disappeared in the fire __Kyūbi__ had caused. _

_The Minato clone saw an opening and he summoned a katana and jumped towards __Kyūbi__. He swiped his blade at __Kyūbi__ and could see his body spit in half. There was no blood, or any kind of evidence that he would have died. _

_This confused the Minato clone; something was not right. When he looked around, he could only see the real Minato. Kyūbi Clones suddenly appeared and the Minato clone narrowed his eyes_

_He fought on instinct as a clone tried to hit him with a scythe, but the Minato clone blocked it with his katana making the blades clash into eachother. While holding each others own weight Minato's clone had ducked down and moved his katana so that the blade swiped under scraping against the scythe's blade. Eventually Minato was able to make the scythe flip off to fall to the floor and with that oppertunity Minato swung his body around with his leg out. He tripped Kyūbi clone, and the clone fell to the ground. Minato stabbed the clone with his blade making it disappear into a cloud of smoke._

_Another clone started running circles around the Minato clone. Kyūbi clone was too quick for Minato to even see the movements, and the pressure was sucking up all the oxygen, making it difficult for the Minato clone to breathe. The more the clone tried to struggle, the more it couldn't move and unfortunately the clone could not hhold out disapearing into a coud of smoke. _

_When Minato, who was fighting clones as well, felt that his clone had disappeared because of suffocating, he quickly created a new one that appeared a few metres away to keep the fihgts going, Minato knew that he would be plenty busy himself and he needed as much help as he could get. Minato grabbed his own throat before quickly turning around to face the clone threatening him, but unfortunately nothing was there. Minato looked in all directions expecting to be attacked, except he could not see the clone anywhere. That was until Minato felt the ground tremble underneath his feet. _

_Realis__atoin dawning on Minato as he jumped up, doing a back flip, then landing on the clone's shoulders, as the clone came out of the ground. Minato summoned another weapon except this time it was a spear, just like his clone had done earlier Minato had pushed it down into the clone's head and body, dispelling him instantly. When Minato finally turned around after feeling something behind him he __realis__ed that __Kyūbi__ clones were trying to attack him again. Preparing for an attack all at once the clones ran together as Minato watched helplessly, he braced himself for their attack knowing that he will do what he can but it will be dificult for him... _

"_Kai!" the Minato clone shouted dispelling the jutsu the real Minato was trapped in. The Minato clone had inserted his own chakra and helped the real Minato, it made him disappear but Minato quickly made a new clone once again._

_Minato looked around, and that's when he saw him. __Kyūbi__ had just stood there, completely undamaged which had angered Minato for loosing so much energy. __Kyūbi__ laughed at Minato, as he was having a lot of fun. __**"You really are funny creatures,"**__ he smirked._

_The clone and the real Minato were not sure of what to do now. Minato tried his fist even if he knew the outcome, as his hand fazed right through __Kyūbi__, again. He was getting very anoyed about the situation and the dificultiness __Kyūbi__ was putting him through. This time Minato stood far away from __Kyūbi__ gathering enough chakra into his fist Minato hit the ground beneath him. The earth shook and cracked all the way to __Kyūbi__, causing him to lose his balance and leaving him ungarded. The Minato clone took the opening and aimed a water blast straight at __Kyūbi__. They both watched __Kyūbi__ falter as he tried to regain his ballence. The water had flooded the ground and eventually making __Kyūbi__ falll deep into the ground, making an even bigger hole. _

_The hesitation was driving Minato insane as he noticed that __Kyūbi__ didn't resurface from the water. Minato slowly walked closer to the hole and noticed that __Kyūbi__ was no where in sight. Looking down in between the creases on the ground, Minato thought that maybe the guy was hiding under his feet or something. Not __realis__ing how distracted Minato really was, a figure appeared halfway out of the ground and the tip of a blade sliced across Minato's lower leg._

_Minato winced in pain, becoming enraged. The whole time Minato's anger was building from the pain he sat in, Minato's clone had filled every hole he made, and any other holes Kyūbi made, with water. Knowing that Kyūbi wouldn't be able to breathe, and would be forced to come out eventually. For a couple of minutes, they stood there waiting. _

_Enough time had passed, but there was no sign of __Kyūbi__. They waited a bit more, until finally Minato couldn't take anymore, and jumped into the water. He could slim himself down to fit in the cracks thanks to a water jutsu Jiraiya had taught him a long time ago. He concentrated his chakra into the water. He searched for any evidence that someone was under there. When Minato couldn't feel anything he concluded that __Kyūbi__ was no longer in the hole._

_While Minato was still in the hole, the Minato clone had company. He saw that two __Kyūbi__ clones had made their way over to him. The first one threw some kind of purple chakra at him. He didn't know what the stuff was, but he knew not to test it out. Quickly he jumped sideways while spinning and landing on his feet with his hands touching the ground. The Minato clone then slammed his fists into the ground making the floor crumble once again. The creases made its way towards the clone, but the clone leaped into the air to avoid them. _

_The Minato clone formed a crooked smile on his face. He inserted his chakra into the ground like a wave, causing a small earthquake. Rocks from the floor split upwards into the air, hitting the clone. In seconds, nothing was left of him, only some smoke. _

_The second clone had already set himself in motion. He had a short sword on the left side of his back. He pulled it out, and was now facing the Minato clone. The clone flung his arm out trying to stab any part of Minato's body that he could. While dodging the on coming attacks Minato's clone was able to side step Kyūbi's bunshin. In the process Minato was able to pull out a scroll and summon another katana that he was familiar with._

_A left swing from the bunshin, Minato swung right causing the blades to clash. Bringing up his left leg and kicking __Kyūbi__'s hand making the sword fling upwards into the air. Satisfied by this Minato's clone __leant__ in for the last swip but the bunshin jumped up to use the katana as a push to throw himself into the air. Grabing ahold of the sword the bunshin fliped around falling back to the ground he moved his sword underneath him and pushed the blade onto Minato's katana forcing it to dig deep into the ground. _

_Frustrated by this, Minato's clone grew angry as he pulled the katana out of the ground watching the bushin jump backwards readying himself for another attack. Annoyed by this Minato just wanted this clone to be rid of or for him to disappear fast. When the clone came at him with full speed, Minato's clone slid under his arm and swung towards the clone's side. He pierced his blade through the clone's body, and watched him fall to the floor. Soon there after it disappeared in smoke._

_The real Minato was getting tired of __Kyūbi__'s little game he was making them play. __Kyūbi__ had told Minato that when Kaikou died, Minato would probably die with him, so what's the meaning with fighting him at all? Besides, he had also said that the seal Minato created was more complex than Minato __realis__ed. Something was going on. Obviously, __Kyūbi__ was flaunting his power, and their ignorance._

_Minato felt something behind him, as he turned around quickly only to find his own clone approaching. Slowly dropping his gard Minato turned back around to search for __Kyūbi__ when all of a sudden he could feel demonic chakra again. When he looked all he could see was his clone again. It was too late when he __realis__ed the truth as the Minato's clone forced a punch into Minato's jaw causing him to falter backwards. Another attack from __Kyūbi__ that was too fast for Minato to react to, but this time Minato's real clone had come from th side and slid his sword into the fake clone from __Kyūbi__ only for it to disperse into dust._

_Minato and his clone stood up together both agitated that they haven't found where the real __Kyūbi__ was. They still hadn't even touched __Kyūbi__, and now they couldn't tell where any of his clones were._

_Minato saw something appear in the corner of his eye. When he looked, there wase three __Kyūbi__'s clones standing there looking at the two of them. The real Minato and the clone glanced into the evil red eyes of __Kyūbi__ that stood between the other two, and in mere seconds the were both in a completely different place altogether. _

_Minato glanced at his surroundings feeling the sand move beneath his feet. A huge desert came into view as he could feel himself burn from the sunlight's heat. Making sure his clone was a few metres ahead of him as they both glanced at each other knowing what to do. They both began to gather chakra to release the genjutsu. _

_Unfortunately, the sand below began to tremble, causing them to loose balance and their concentration. They both had to place the chakra into their feet, as if they were walking on water. The sand had risen up and tried to swallow them. The Minato clone jumped to the left, while Minato leaped in the opposite direction. _

_In a matter of seconds a red monsterous fox appeared out of the sand, the original form of __Kyūbi__ had sent chills down both Minato's spines as the sight had consumed them. Sand dripping from __Kyūbi__'s fur with drool coming from his sharp teeth. The killing intent was large enough to destroy the planet with one howl, his nine tails flying about him as if they would make every difference that the nine tailed fox could do._

_The best place he could be where he couldn't get hurt, Minato thought as he leaped onto the fox's back. Placing his Katana in the air, and slammed it _into Kyūbi's _neck. Although the blade was unable to pierce through the thick red skin, and the fox was able to shake Minato off of it's back._

_Minato fell into the sand but had to quickly recover and pull himself out as __Kyūbi__'s head __leant__ down fast with a snap of his jaw only to eat the sand in his mouth. Unsatisfied __Kyūbi__ swiped two tails Minato's way causing the clone to dispel and a huge sand hole was created. The sand started to rotated slowly, then as the time past it was now forming a tornado underground and Minato had to create another clone to help him throw him out of it before it swallod him. Minato watched his clone sink into the sand._

_For the next couple of minutes, the only thing Minato could do was dodge. He was getting tired of this, but decided to create a new clone again, running beside him. The Minato clone thought of an idea. He told it to Minato as they kept running. In a couple of seconds, Minato stopped running and grabbed a hold of the clone's left arm._

_Minato spun him around in circles five times. Each time he had gotten faster. __Kyūbi__ raced toward them, and as soon as it opened its mouth, Minato released the clone. He went flying into the fox's mouth, and was swallowed whole. _

_Minato watched the fox abruptly stop what it was doing and started to squeel in pain loudly. Watching blood pour from the inside Minato could see his clone's katana blade sticking out of the fox's neck. The clone had not disapeared and instead had swung it's blade around in a complete circle to cut off __Kyūbi__'s head. The clone had to climb out of the blood that washed down like a waterfall, quickly running over to Minato both of them gathered chakra to release the genjutsu._

_"Kai (Release)!" Both of them shouted at the same time. When the clone disappeared, Minato frowned._

_Nothing happened, and Minato was confused. He tried it alone two more times, but failed. Not sure of where he should go from there, he looked into the distance and could see another Kyūbi comming up from the sand. Soon he could feel the ground tremble and when he looked up again there was dozens of Kyūbi's all running toward him. Some fox's had a different colour of fur, red, green, blue, black, and even white. Terror had filled Minato's face as he brought his hands together once again._

"_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!" he shouted again and then turned to the clone that now stood beside him. "We have to combine our chakra together!" Minato said, as they ran to find sturdier ground. _

_The clone just nodded, and they stopped running. Both gathered their chakra again, and placed their hands together. In moments,__ Minato was __back to where he'd been before. The clone had once again disappeared and Minato was left frowning._

_Apparently he had made it in time, because there were two __Kyūbi__ man clones coming right at him. For what felt like the hundredth time, Minato created a new clone. One of __Kyūbi__ clones was going after Minato, and the other after the Minato clone. Both stood facing each other. Minato had taken a sidestep, while turning his upper body around, as the Minato __clone did the same. _

_Kyūbi clone that was after the Minato clone had gotten his chest pierced by the real Minato's blade. The Minato clone had attacked the one that was after Minato at the same time, sliding his sword into the clone's stomach. Both were now dispelled. _

_Now he, or rather they, had to find __Kyūbi__ and end this. Minato noticed something: even though he was in the same room as before, and that clones had attacked them, there was something wrong. The air was thicker and it felt as if mind was split in two, well, he had a clone next to his side, but this feeling was different. He then understood that he was still in a genjutsu. This would mean that the user must be very powerful to keep them in this big of an illusion. _

_This was getting very annoying to Minato, and he had had enough of it. The longer he waited, the more frustrated he became. Somehow he needed to get out of this genjutsu while calm and of course alive. _

_After standing there for a couple of minutes, fifteen Kyūbi clones had appeared. They surrounded Minato and the Minato clone. All of them attacked at once. Minato had increased the length of his blade, the clone had did the same and they looked like two oversized swords that would fit the strength of a zampaktou._

_Minato and his clone both locked eachother's arms, that was not holding a weapon, together, and spun themselves around. They created a whirl of wind, cutting all the clones and sending them flying up against the walls, disappearing in clouds of smoke. After that, they just stood there, waiting for any more attempts and feeling good, as if indestructible. _

_Nothing came, and soon they faded back to reality. When they looked to see what happened, they noticed that __Kyūbi__ was now distracted with something Minato couldn't __see exactly, but it looked like another human, which would __explain why the genjutsu had ended so abruptly. _

_Kyūbi__ had finished off the 'thing' after him with one fireball jutsu. Now he faced Minato and the Minato clone with a snicker. _


	31. Is everything back to normal now?

**Chapter Thirty One: Is Everything Back To Normal Now?**  
_Written by MrsHellman 2008  
__Betad by Carrie2sky_

_Fightscne's written by Sarinax_

_

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_

_The Minato clone made the first move. He placed his sword into the ground, and made a few hand signs. Water splashed out between the floor and the sword. The liquid started to form around his body and he stayed in it. Soon it synthesized with him, making him a watery substance. _

_"Distract him," the Minato clone said._

_Minato's clone nodded his head in approval, and went running towards __Kyūbi__. He swung his blade in __Kyūbi__'s direction. __Kyūbi__ saw this coming and jumped to the side, causing Minato to miss. While __Kyūbi__ was distracted, the Minato clone had spit water from his mouth. _

_It hurled its way at __Kyūbi__, and then it trapped him inside of the water prison. This pleased the Minato clone, and he formed another set of hand signs. In seconds, a shark like fish had appeared in the water prison along with __Kyūbi__. The fish tried to bite him, but it went right through him. __Kyūbi__ had floated his way out of the water, as if he was a ghost. _

_The clone was surprised. _There's no way this guy can do such a thing! But he is a demon after all . . .

_Now they were back to where they started. __Kyūbi__ was not at all affected, nor did he seem tired. Minato was getting low on energy and chakra. Knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to defeat __Kyūbi__, he decided he could only distract him until he came close enough to the real body so he could place the seal on him. _

_This however, was easier said than done. __Kyūbi__ seemed immortal, unable to hit, and did not appear to get exhausted. Even if Minato would go all out on __Kyūbi__, it still wouldn't do any damage. There was no way they would even be able to hit him. _

_Minato had thought about it, and figured that maybe this wasn't even __Kyūbi__'s real body they were fighting. Yet, he was able to perform jutsus and still attack. So he had to be real. Maybe they weren't fast enough to fight him, putting them at a great disadvantage._

_Taking out a special kunai Minato was saving he flung it toward __Kyūbi__ and missing on porpose as __Kyūbi__ was distracted moving away from the weapon Minato was able to apear behind __Kyūbi__ in a flash. Swinging his arm out, Minato had knocked __Kyūbi__ off ballence and sent him flying across the area. Even if it was only one hit, it worked effectively._

_Minato had little patience and ran after him. He jumped in the air and took his blade out comming down hard, barely missing. __Kyūbi__ rolled to the side and shot up quickly dodging every thrown attack at him. _

_Kyūbi__ threw a fire jutsu at Minato, and Minato's clone had jumped in the fire's way taking the hit. This caused only some of his clothes to burn, but the fire itself had disappeared into steam. _

_Since Minato distracted __Kyūbi__, __Kyūbi__ didn't see the Minato clone come at him, he had only felt the chakra. All he could do was try to avoid it, being unable to detect where it came from. The Minato clone had come up from the air and kicked down hard, right on the back of __Kyūbi__'s head._

_Kyūbi went straight down into the floor making a large crater in the ground. Dusty smoke covered their eyes, and Minato couldn't tell if Kyūbi was still down there or if he got away. Slowly Kyūbi had risen upwards from the smoke only to be a few insches away from Minato's face as Minato was unable to move. The dangerous red eyes gave a glow and suddenly Minato felt a familiar feeling throughout his entire body. He was caught in a genjutsu again._

_Minato was now in a cell, chained to a wall. He could now see __Kyūbi__ standing before him slowly making his way over to Minato. __Kyūbi__ lifted his arm and pointing his finger toward Minato and soon fire had spread it's way all over Minato's body, the sensation of the burning of his skin was making Minato scream out of pain. Trying to release the genjutsu he was under Minato fought the chains wrapped around him._

_Unable to break free as the fire was growing hotter, it was now burning not only his body but his spirit in the illusion. This had continued for at least two minutes. All of a sudden the pain was gone, but as fast as it was gone, it started up again. The genjutsu continued to go on for an entire day in that world._

_Suddenly, the genjutsu ended just like it had done before. Minato narrowed his eyes and looked through what looked like a mist, he was sweating heavily and it felt like he was __a __fountain, pouring out it's water, but in this case, body liquid. _

_Minato's clone had disappeared during the genjutsu so Minato was left alone again._

_Kyūbi__ stood motionless, waiting for Minato to look into his eye again, but he also knew that Minato understood that he used eye genjutsus, and would avoid direct eye contact from now on. Therefore, he had to think of a way to get Minato in his genjutsu again. _

Don't look at him directly in the eye. Focus on his feet and try to follow his movements that way he can't send us into a genjutsu again,_ thought Minato and sighed._

_Minato stared at __Kyūbi__'s feet, avoiding eye contact, while trying to increase his other senses to fight, even if only a little. __Kyūbi__ leapt into the air, throwing some shurikans that came out of his sleeve, hurdling towards Minato. Since Minato was looking down, he could only hear where he was coming from. Minato jumped out of the way. Then, he heard a sizzling sound, unsure at first was it was. Then it dawned on him. _

It's an exploding tag! _Minato shouted in his mind._

_He had to jump up to get out of the way. Unable to avoid getting hurt, the explosion was small anyway. It had barely singed his clothes, let alone his skin. He lost his balance and fell to the ground in pain._

"_**Now you die**__** . . .**__**"**__Kyūbi__ said as he came up closer to Minato with a grin. _

_Minato had his katana still in his hand, and when __Kyūbi__ had approached him, he swung it at __Kyūbi__, successfully hitting him. The blade didn't pierce him, as it was placed vertically with the flat side of the blade hitting him, so __Kyūbi__ was pushed back far away from Minato._

_Minato was running out of chakra, and was getting tired. He had to stand his ground though, and get done with this, once and for all._

_Minato waited for a couple of minutes, unsure of where __Kyūbi__ was, or when he would attack again. He couldn't feel any movement, or chakra usage. _

_Wanting to look up, Minato knew that it would be idiotic to play right into Kyūbi's trap. He definately didn't want Kyūbi to get the best of him, but he wouldn't be able to deal with that excrutiating pain again._

_After a couple of more minutes Minato's patience ran out, and he looked up very slowly. He couldn't find __Kyūbi__ anywhere, he might have been under the ground, but he wasn't sure. _

_No more clones appeared either, so he didn't have to worry about that. He kept his guard up just in case he was missing something. _

_Minato could hear a faint cry, the familiar sound had scared him frozen unable to move. His suroundings went black then faded to red. Blood had splashed onto him and the disturbing images of every one he knew, dieing. The only thing he could do was watch as __Kyūbi__ had brought something to his mind that Minato never wanted to think was possible. _

_It's just a genjutsu Minato thought to himself as he tried to move to save everyone. The only thing he found himself doing was falling on his knees and feeling some kind of dark eerie wind as it carried the screams and deaths of innocent people. A maliciously laugh echoed through out the area as Minato looked up to see __Kyūbi__'s true eyes stare directly at him. _

_As if in slow motion __Kyūbi__'s snout made it's way over to Minato, slowly opening his jaws while saliva spilled out. His mouth was so close to Minato that he could smell the disgusting breath that __Kyūbi__ had. If Minato was paying attention he would have been able to see the blood stains that __Kyūbi__ left in his teeth and gums. _

_Was this the end for Minato? Had he failed to do what he promised to do? __Kyūbi__ was closing in on him and something in Minato felt like he had just died, but an image flashed through his mind as he saw that precious person that he kept him together, that person that he was doing this for. _

_Something jolted inside of him making the adrenaline rush though. Minato knew that it was too late to escape from __Kyūbi__ so instead he gripped the handle on his katana that he still held onto. Forcing his legs to give him a boost Minato flew straight into __Kyūbi__'s mouth with his weapon going in first._

_With a flash of light Minato now realised he was back where he started, listening closely Minato looked around, afraid that Kyūbi would appear any second and catch him in some kind of jutsu. Luckily, nothing happened after a couple of minutes, and he was really glad, but still watched out for some kind attack. _

_Kyūbi__ was nowhere to be found__._

"_**Gotcha!" **__a voice shouted as Minato felt someone's presence behind him. His eyes widened and it seemed as if everything went in slow motion, and before he knew it, __Kyūbi__ stabbed him with his claws straight into his right shoulder._

_Minato cried out in pain, and grabbed __Kyūbi__'s wrist to get it off of him. __Then it hit __him._

_Kyūbi__ felt a burning feeling on his wrist and not until it was too late did he __realis__e what had just happened. He looked down at his wrist and then at Minato's who was falling to the ground, half conscious. __Kyūbi__ had the seal on his wrist._

_Minato hit the ground. __Kyūbi__ shouted out in agony and then everything disappeared in darkness for Minato._

Minato was currently looking up at a white ceiling through half lidded eyes. His head was aching and it felt as if he'd been tossed into a washing machine at full speed. Everything was spinning and he wanted to throw up. He sighed and closed his eyes again as he turned his head to the side; that's when he noticed that something was poking his cheek. He wrinkled his nose and forced himself to open his eyes again. He was met with two big blue eyes that looked worried.

He frowned. _What the __bloody hell . . .__?_ He thought and closed his again and re-opened them. He blinked a few times before he realised that it was Naruto looking down at him.

"Naruto!?" he exclaimed as he tried to sit up, but couldn't move his body upwards, he was too tired to do so.

"Don't even try it, Minato," a stern female voice said from the other side of the bed as Minato turned his head towards the source of the voice. He was met with Tsunade. "You've been out for over a month and I don't want you to hurt yourself before you even get the chance to wake up properly."

"Sorry," he said with a very hoarse voice as he felt Naruto shift on his left side.

"Naruto's been worried and so have I," Tsunade continued and even though Minato didn't look at her, he felt her gaze on him. He was perplexed.

Naruto was back to normal; he was fifteen again. Naruto had recovered from the incident and was now looking very healthy compared to what he had looked like before. He wasn't covered in wounds anymore and Minato noticed that he didn't have the whiskers now when Kyūbi was gone. But what shocked Minato the most was that Naruto was very pale and had dark bags under his eyes as if he hadn't been sleeping properly for a long time.

"What happened to you?" Minato asked, frowning and even though Minato's muscles were very weak, he could feel himself shaking.

"Well, I . . ." Naruto began but stopped and Minato could see tears forming in his son's eyes. "I'm just happy that you're alive." The tears fell and Minato found himself speechless.

"Naruto . . ." Minato finally said, quietly. He would give anything, just to able to move his arms to wipe Naruto tears away and console him.

"As you can see, Naruto returned to normal during your fight with Kyūbi and Kaikou," Tsunade said as Minato still didn't look at her. "This happened only three days ago, and don't ask me how but his memories are slowly returning, however, it'll probably take some time until they're fully back but until then . . . well . . ." Tsunade trailed off. "Er, Naruto?" Naruto lifted his tear stained face to look at her. "Do you mind if I talk with Minato alone for a moment?"

Naruto frowned but stood up and left the room. Minato's eyes widened as he tried to reach out for his son who exited the room.

"Tsunade—"

"No Minato," Tsunade interrupted him as Minato frowned again. "You'll have to listen to me now. Naruto returned to his old body two days ago, at the same time, his memories began returning as well. He's very confused and he remembers everything from his childhood but nothing from the academy days and on, so . . . he's scared. Because the only things he knows is hatred and sorrow right now. He does remember you and that's very good because I was afraid that he might forget about you," Tsunade explained as Minato saw that she was exhausted from helping Naruto through the previous days.

"You said that he's slowly remembering?" Minato asked as Tsunade nodded.

"Yes, he is and he told me about these dreams where he tries to run towards a person he can't see the face of, and every time he wake up he gains a new memory," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed. "Since his memories begin before he started at the academy, he knows that no one liked him back then so he's extremely scared and paranoid, but when he saw that you woke up . . . well . . . I've never seen him so happy before." Tsunade smiled.

"I should have been there," Minato said after a pregnant silence. Tsunade looked away from his face. "I'm his dad and I should have been there when he regained his memories, that's when he needed me the most!"

"There was nothing you could have done Minato. He was scared the whole time until he saw your open eyes. He doesn't trust me, he doesn't trust Sakura and the only ones he remembers who actually looked at him without hatred is Sasuke and later, when he saw you. No one of us understand how he feels right now," Tsunade continued to explain as Minato closed his eyes for a brief moment.

"He hasn't been sleeping, has he?" Minato asked after another pregnant silence as Tsunade shook her head.

"He's been so scared at all hours, being unable to sleep, but it'll probably get better now," she finished with a smile.

"Yeah. But I noticed that he could walk," Minato said, remembering that Naruto walked out of the room by himself.

"Yes, he learnt that before he returned to his normal body, he's still a bit unsteady but he can move around pretty good now," Tsunade commented as Minato nodded with a small smile. Naruto would never give up and always did his best no matter what.

"I noticed that my muscles are very weak and atrophied, when will I be able to walk again?" Minato asked, as he smiled a bit at the irony, first Naruto and then him.

"I thought that I'd give you something to make the healing process quicker, but there's a catch," Tsunade answered with a smirk as Minato frowned. "I'll only give it you if you stay with Naruto twenty-four-seven until he regains his memory completely."

"Of course I will stay with him, but why didn't you use it on Naruto before?" Minato asked again as Tsunade sighed at all the questions.

"Children can't take this medicine, it would damage their chakra and mental capacity, that's why," she answered as Minato nodded. Tsunade went out of the room for a few seconds and returned with a glass, filled with a yellow liquid.

"Drink this and you'll be back on your legs by tomorrow night, okay?" Tsunade said as Minato nodded again before Tsunade helped him drink it all.

_Disgusting__ . . ._Minato thought when he had emptied the whole glass as Tsunade smirked again at his reaction.

Two days passed and Minato was back on his legs again. He was wobbling but he could move so he and Naruto were in equal positions now.

Naruto was finally asleep, after all this time of stressing himself out and by staying close to Minato the whole time as well.

Minato looked at his son's sleeping face and he'd noticed that Naruto was regaining his normal complexion's colour. He was probably remembering some of the days from the academy where he met his first friends, like Shikamaru, Kiba and Chōji.

"Ne Minato?" Tsunade asked as she entered the room where Minato was looking over some documents about Konoha, shinobi, Kyūbi attack, Shinigami and stuff like that.

"Tsunade-san," Minato answered with a frown. They hadn't talked to each other for quite some time now.

"I forgot to tell you something that I think you might have noticed when you fought Kyūbi," she began, as Minato frowned again while titling his head. "I know that you were caught in two genjutsus and I kind of helped you out there," she continued as Minato smiled. She was the one who had broken the genjutsus when he couldn't.

"So it was you, thank you," Minato answered as Tsunade smiled a wide smile. "That gives me the answer to another question, but there are a lot of questions I still don't have answers to," Minato continued as his smile faltered.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Kaikou looked like me but I didn't die when he died. Naruto's reason for using the yellow chakra . . .there are so many questions I want the answers to," Minato answered as Tsunade gulped.

"Minato, listen to me and promise me that you'll hear me out and do the right thing when I'm finished," Tsunade began as Minato had a worried facial expression. "Promise me you'll stop looking for these answers, please."

"Nani!? Why Tsunade-san?" Minato asked with a shocked facial expression that told Tsunade that this wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Because sometimes you shouldn't play with things you don't know much about," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed. "I know that something bad is going to happen if you continue searching for your answers. I don't want you and Naruto to go back to the unhappiness you had before you met each other. If that happens, it will be hard to be a family."

"So you're telling me to just give it up?" Minato asked as Tsunade sadly nodded her head.

"Yes, but it's for the best. I don't want anything bad to happen, that's all," Tsunade answered as Minato sighed again, lowering his gaze to the floor.

Minato thought about it for a long moment and finally, after more than a whole minute, he looked up at Tsunade again. "I know that you're right, but . . .I really want to know, and still . . ." he sighed and rubbed his eyes with one of his hands. "I think I'll follow your advice for once."

Tsunade smiled more than she had done in years and Minato couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Thank you so much Minato, thank you."

* * *

Minato was looking over some documents a Jounin recently gave him. It was about some kid named Konohamaru that had 'accidentally' been found in the women's bathhouse, _again._

Minato sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama!" someone shouted and the next Minato knew, his office door was flung open, revealing two panting Chuunin that looked like two strawberries because their faces were red from exhaustion and their hair was full of leaves.

"Um . . . yes?" he asked and frowned with his eyes while looking at them with half amusement, half concern. He may know what this all was about.

"It's the . . . Hokage monument . . . sir!" one of the Chunnin said between the pants.

"Don't tell me more," Minato said and stood up with a smirk on his face. "Naruto painted the Hokage monuments again, didn't he?"

"Yes sir," the two Chunnin answered in chorus.

"Here we go again," Minato said with a smile as he exited the Hokage building though his office window. As he fell down towards the ground he was actually reminiscing nostalgically.

It had been half a year since Kaikou and Kyūbi had disappeared and Naruto had fully regained all of his memories and ability to walk. It had been really tough most of the time, but finally, everything was okay and back to normal, well . . . as normal it could be on Naruto's part, considering that his father was the Fourth Hokage, he had a family, he didn't have Kyūbi anymore which meant that Akatsuki couldn't go after him from now on, and his friends were still amazed over this whole 'Fourth Hokage alive dad thing' and they had known about for nearly _over_ a year now.

Yeah, it was okay now. They hadn't heard much from Hebi and their location nor the Akatsuki, but both the Fire Country and the Wind Country were doing their best to capture them. Naruto had begged on his knees that Sasuke should at least be given a chance to live a normal life in Konoha again, but unfortunately, Minato couldn't agree with that.

Naruto had been pissed about that and still was, that's why he had painted the Hokage Mountain over seventeen times now, only to piss Minato off, and Minato couldn't deny the fact that he was rather pissed because all of the pranks Naruto was pulling made him feel older than he really was.

Minato landed on the ground and began running towards the Hokage monument where he could see something orange move around. He smirked and ran faster.

But he didn't dislike the way Naruto was acting because Naruto was happy about having a family of his own and not being hated by the villagers anymore, and if Naruto was happy, Minato was happy as well because Naruto was his everything.

"Oi, Naru-chan?" Minato asked as he stopped behind Naruto who was currently painting Minato's face, giving it wrinkles, glasses and gray hair. "That's low you know."

"Huh! Dad!?" Naruto shouted in surprise as he turned around facing his dad with a shocked expression. "Um I mean . . . hello, what brings you here?"

"Oh, wittle Naru-chan doesn't know?" Minato asked in a fake baby voice. "I think you'll figure it out during your week of being grounded, but maybe you'll realise it during your time of cleaning up the monument _before_ being grounded?" Minato said as he looked at Naruto with an amused smirk; Naruto's facial expression was priceless.

"Nani!? You've gotta be shitting me!?" Naruto screamed and made gestures with his hands and arms as Minato had to move out of the way, to avoid being hit.

"Does it look as if I'm 'shitting' you?" Minato asked, emphasizing the 'oh-so-beautiful' word choice of his son.

Naruto shouted out in agony and self-pity.

"Hey, it could be worse, maybe you want me to extend your punishment?" Minato asked and couldn't help but grin at Naruto's facial expression.

"NO! I'll be a good boy!" Naruto said, somewhat embarrassed by what he just said, but hugged his dad all the same.

Minato laughed and ruffled his hair while returning the hug. "When you want to be, you can be so sweet, and sometimes I wonder if you're really human or if you're a failed experiment," he said as Naruto's jaw dropped.

"That was really low, so we're even," Naruto smirked as Minato snorted.

"Fine, you're not grounded, but you're still cleaning the monument," Minato answered as Naruto's face faltered.

"Damn it . . ." he cursed before realising his mistake.

"I'll take that back, you're grounded for . . . a month."

"DAD!"

* * *

That's it. Please leave reviews and I hope you enjoyed the story. Special thanks to _TS _for leaving critique.

© MrsHellman 2007-2008


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